BEIJING!!!

Well well, once again I have let my blog go unattended for a while, and once again I have so much to write about.
Last thing you read, We were about to head on to China, all the passport and visa problems had been sorted and there was nothing else to worry about. well, not the case....

Because my old visa was missing, I had to obtain what is called and exit visa. The British embassy told me all I had to do, and their instructions I followed to the letter. I had a letter which I was to present to the consolate for the ministry of foreign affairs at the airport, he would then approve my application that the British embassy had faxed to him before hand. I would then give him my passport and $25 dollars and I would have a shiny exit visa. I was naive enough to believe that Russian diplomacy could actually go so smoothly.

We arrived about 4 hours before check in time (6 hours before flight departure) and looked for the place to speak with the console. What we found was a talk box like the ones you see outside of a block of flats... hmmm. I pressed the button and waited. After much debate it turned out that the fax the British embassy where supposed to send had not been sent, my application could NOT be approved, and I couldn't leave the country. This felt like a shot in the chest. We'd been through so much shit to get this far, nothing is gonna stop us now surely??? I got onto the phone to the British embassy (feeling incredibly pissed off) and demanded to speak to the desk officer. I got a call back from a very helpful guy called Nick. Nick told me that the British embassy HAD sent the fax and that the console must've received them. He then phoned the consular office and tried to sort the situation.

He phoned me back about 30 mins later with more bad news. The guy who was supposed to approve applications had gone home, and no one else in the office was authorised to do so, "Im gonna see what I can do" he said.

The whole episode continued for hours, the occasional glimmer of hope and then all hope snatched away again. Time was running out and the situation had become what Nick called "a diplomatic do-do". Around 20 minutes before check in closed Nick phoned again to tell us that the desk officer for the consular office would come and look at our papers, our last chance, another glimmer of hope....

Snatched away, no was the answer. We both broke down in tears, no way we where going to china, no way could we even leave the country!

We went to the Aeroflot office to see if we could refund our tickets, maybe get some money towards a flight home. Instead we discovered that we could change the date on our tickets, free of charge!!!!! FKN BOOOOOO!!!!!!!

We moved the date forwards a couple days and everything was back on. Got back onto the phone to Nick and he sorted out a new application letter for me and faxed it too. Awesome guy.

All sorted you might think, well not quite, I wont go into more detail (you're probably bored already) but lets just say that when we arrived about 10 hours before our new flight to collect my visa the ministry of foreign affairs denied receiving the application again.... Luckily we had enough time to sort it all out this time, and about 3 hours before check in opened I HAVE A FKN EXIT VISA!!!!! We danced.

Now the reason I had to go through all of this is because UK is not a Schengen country. Belgium is. Schengen and Russia have an agreement which states that if a member of either territory is without visa in a situation such as ours, they don't need an exit visa to leave the country, just their passport. Hence Lucy did not have to go through any of this hassle. We knew this, the MFA knew this, the embassies knew this, but the passport control at Moscow airport did not. I got through no problems, and as I turned to see how Lucy was doing I saw her being taken off to some office somewhere. My heart skipped a beat.

I knew that they would figure out why she had no visa, and why she didn't need one. Problem was would they figure it out in time. I was running around the huge departure lounge for what felt like hours. Going from the departure gate, to passport control, the the MFA office, back to the gate, over and over. Eventually I heard "DDDAAAAAVVVVEEEE!!!!" from the other side of the lounge, I heard it again. Thank fuuuuuuuk. We both had tears in our eyes but we hugged more tightly than ever before. I don't mind admitting that I was scared, I dunno what I would've done.. The thought of us being separated is terrifying. I dread the day when I have to go back to UK and leave her in Belgium. I'm so smitten its unreal. Ooops, anyway, We boarded the plane, we taxied, we took off, WE'RE GOING TO FUKIN CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The flight was easy, I think I hadn't been able to properly relax since the passports went missing and now everything was sorted I just crashed. Woke up about 30 mins before landing and watched the beautiful landscape unrolling under the plane and Beijing coming into view. Landed and we both started cheering again. Even as we walked off the plane everything felt different, more modern, more Asian. when we boarded in Russia it was snowing and here in Beijing its warm, clear blue skies. Noice.

The airport felt futuristic, so clean, so shiny, so many adverts with Jackie Chan...

We left our bags at left luggage and found the bus into the city. The bus takes you from a modern terminal, along a newly constructed road, and into the modern, tidy, part of the city (no accident for sure) But we both enjoyed it, Beijing is very very beautiful.

We arrived at Beijing Railway station bang in the centre of the city. Bustling doesn't even begin to describe it, People everywhere. We made the 20 minute walk to our hostel through the business centre of the city, We both looked in awe at the massive shiny buildings, the modern-ness of everything. As we got out of the main business area the other side of Beijing came through. Small shops selling bits n bobs, people living their lives on the streets, playing mah jong and dominoes on the pavement. 3 wheeled Rickshaws and bicycles everywhere. coooooool

We reached our hostel and crashed......

Woke up early evening, it was a beautiful clear night, warm and still so we took a walk to get some food. Found a nice restaurant with a very interesting menu. Shark fin, birds nest, pigs trotters, Turtle WHOLE!!!! We went for a chicken dish, some noodles, and rice. Total cost? About 70 RMB, less than a fiver. After eating we continued walking and found our way to the walls of the forbidden city. Its closed at night but we took a walk around the moat and straight away fell in love with it. The water was still and we could see the stars reflected in it, the
silhouette of the ancient buildings and weeping willows was awe inspiring. I felt more calm, more happy, and more content than I have in a long long time. Being in an amazing place like this with someone I love so much is something that will stay with me forever. We walked slowly around the walls before returning to the hostel.

The next morning we got an early start, first order of the day? renting bikes =D When in Rome etc...
Cycling around Beijing is like nothing else, sometimes the roads are 5 lanes wide in each direction, traffic moves constantly, even at traffic lights, people just stand in the middle at junctions, its insane, and massive amounts of fun. Very dangerous probably, but I payed 80 something quid for my health insurance, so I'm gonna fukin make the most of it!

We made our way back to the forbidden city, this time to look inside. We locked our bikes at the south gate and went in. WOW!!! This is something else.... The buildings are sooo beautiful, the place is huge! The first gate you walk through you are met by a huge courtyard, buildings on every side and a river running through the middle. Across the bridge is the temple of supreme harmony, and a gate for you to walk through to the next courtyard. All the buildings around the side are used as museum space to display all the various artifacts from the palaces. All kinda cool shit, too much to describe, Ill show the pics.

As you walk from from the outside of the city inwards the temples and gates become smaller, more intimate, still just as beautiful though. When they called it the forbidden city they really weren't kidding, Its huge in here. The only real downer was the number of tourists. I would've loved to have found a corner to just sit and relax, contemplate the surroundings, but every attempt at solitude is scuppered by another tour group. Regardless, I still find this place so amazing. Somewhere in the middle is a garden area, the main feature is a semi man made hill with a temple on the top. It was used for some ancient ceremony of which I cant remember the details.

After hours of walking around the various corridors and paths we found our way out and took our bikes into the city. If you ride south from the forbidden city you soon reach Tian'anmen square. This is the biggest public square in the world, and my god is it massive. The north side is some kinda temple type building with a massive painting of Mao on and large concrete seats all around for watching various processions etc during celebrations and such. And to the north is a large gate and Mao's mausoleum. We rode all the way round and on the south side are shopping streets and also Hutongs. Hutongs are essentially slums, some more run down than others, I think that some are "maintained" for tourists but we decided to delve a little deeper. This feels way more real than the other parts of Beijing we'd seen so far. People are definitely poor, but certainly not miserable, these places are lively and friendly, sure we got a few stares but its understandable I think. The streets are lined with tiny 1 story houses. None of them have toilets or anything and people all share public toilets, poo-ing is communal here....

We walked around for hours, getting more and more lost, eventually we stumbled on a "safe" hutong area which was lined with American tourists all queuing for rickshaw rides. We made our way back into Tien'anmen square, found our bikes and headed to the hostel, tired.

The next day we got bikes again and this time headed towards Beihai park and the white pagoda, just to the west of Forbidden city. This place is amazing. So tranquil. Its a large lake with an island in the middle, the lake is surrounded by weeping willows, and the island also. The lake itself was covered with Water lilies, unfortunately we are too late to them in their full glory but still an awesome sight for sure. The island is a hill covered with temples, tea houses and gates. On the summit is the white Pagoda. We fell in love with this park in seconds. The noise of the city is far away and it feels as though your in the countryside somewhere.

We spent hours exploring the island, following all these little paths that criss-cross it, feeling more and more relaxed. It feels like the park has been designed specifically for becoming the most relaxed person ever and it works! I could spend days here I think.

After the park we headed back into the Hutongs for more exploring etc. Hours later we emerged and found our way towards the shopping areas of the city. With the Olympics coming up, Beijing is busy modernising the centre, new shopping centres being completed and the metro is being expanded enormously. One of the streets has a huge outdoor food market and despite all the warnings we decided to try some of the local delicacies. That night we ate snake (chewy), scorpions (Crunchy), various types of seaweed (salty), deep fried ice cream (very good), Candied crab apples (sweet and crunchy), and silkworms (Most disgusting thing ever!!!) Also on the menu was cows stomach, squid, octopus, Penis of some animal, sea horse on a stick, starfish, Sea Urchin, and a tonne of stuff I have no idea. We played it pretty safe.

The next day was gig day!! We spent the day, again looking around the hutongs before taking the metro to club D22. We arrived about 1 hour late because we couldn't find the fkn place and when we arrived there where 4 people in the club. The owner, the sound guy, and a couple regulars. We said hi and sat and chatted for a while. I had about an hour before I was due to play so we went an got a bite to eat. When we got back to the venue there was 5 people!!!!

I played my set regardless and had real good fun doing it, I would've liked a few more people there but the sound guy and the owner where cheering loads and Lucy kept coming up and giving me cheeky notes <3. After the gig everyone cheered and we sat and had another drink while everyone tried to persuade us to stay in Beijing.

We are both falling in love with this city, its so beautiful, and such an amazing mix of styles, modern one time, old and traditional the next.

The next few days unfortunately our opinion changed. We had been very lucky so far with pollution but it all changed with the winds. I have never seen such dirty air in my life. At times you cant see one side of the street from the other because of the browny grey mist. Its actually made us both quite ill, right now Lucy is trying to sleep off a horrible headache and temperature, and I've got what feels like hay fever X10. I can understand why people walk around with masks on. We've been trying to visit the other things we've wanted to see but the pollution really takes it out of you, exhaustion kicks in quickly and we've found ourselves crashing out at like 6 pm for a couple hours every night. Its a massive shame IMO. This city is magical and one of the most beautiful places Ive ever been, and its ruined by this smog. I really hope that the problem is sorted soon.

One other thing worth mentioning is the food. Its nothing like the Chinese that you get in your good ole chinky restaurants... no surprise there. Its actually quite spicy most of the time, a common feature is cold noodles dishes, and often meat comes on the bone, something I'm not so keen on. But its nearly always delicious, and always cheep. One thing popular in Beijing is hot pot cooking. You are brought a massive metal pot with very strong and spicy stock/soup in. This is placed on a gas heater on your table and heated till the soup boils. You then have loads of different things to put into the soup, meats, vegetables, ginger, bamboo, all sorts. Its pretty good. Sometimes you see some pretty crazy stuff on the menu too, all the bits n pieces of animals you wouldn't normally want to eat, and some animals you wouldn't want to eat at all. We've managed to learn the symbols for chicken, pork, and beef, so we can stay safe of anything too risky. Another funny thing is the translations of what the dish is. A lot of the time you'd think that its just been mangled in babelfish a load, here are some great examples from a place we went in a few days ago:

The self made animal skin is frozen
Old Vinegar stings the head
Binaural Spinach
The palace explodes the fresh water shrimp
Soy beans are a little pig
Old Grandmothers scalloped kidney
The turban sprinkles acid

If you have any idea what of these might be, Id love to know, some good track names though me thinks.

So not much else to say, hopefully we'll feel a little better tomorrow since its our last full day in Beijing. The day after we take the 11 hour train journey to Shanghai and more adventures.

Hope to see everyone soon, I get back on the 4th and will be sleeping until the Armouredcore night at the horn on Monday the 5th. See everyone there?

Much love to all.

PS, Pete will love this, I was unsure how to spell "Centre" so I did a search on Dictionary.com.

It turns out that the spelling "Centre" is in fact a British variation on the correct spelling of "Center"....