Temple of Heaven and other tourists

I think I caused quite a bit of concern by writing about mine and Ric's minor feuds. Rest assured, all is well really and we reckon since we've got this far, it'll be plain sailing from here, touch wood!
I can't wait for Ric to meet my dad and other family! We're getting very excited now.

We decided to change hostel today since the one we were in last night only had one room left for us and this opened directly out on to the noisy main communal area thus preventing us from sleeping properly or being able to draw the curtains! There was also no partition between the bed and the bathroom. Again, Ric and I are close but do need some privacy. We couldn't stay there for the rest of the week!

We moved to the very popular Leo Hostel just around the corner. They all seem to look and feel the same now. Sitting in the cafe, you could be anywhere - Bangkok, Singapore, Europe - all with aphorisms, names and love notes scrawled across the walls, 'chill out' music, fridges of cheap beer, Western-Asian restaurants, heaving third or fourth hand book shelves and packed Internet rooms.

I had been told by a fellow cyclist that it would be foolish to ride a bike in Beijing these days, now that the Chinese have the means to buy cars and drive them so badly, but today Ric and I hired a couple of large rickety framed hybrids and set off around town. I shrieked with joy as I whizzed down the widest bicycle lanes I have EVER come across (wider than four car lanes), marvelled at all the traffic lights for bikes and rejoiced when I saw the array of parking facilities. The traffic wasn't so bad either and the buses even gave me right of way! Oh that London was like this. I also love seeing people of all shapes, sizes, ages and dress on their two-wheelers. None of this Lycra-clad machismo I am so accustomed to back home. It has rained non-stop today which is a great relief. It gets so hot here when the sun comes out.

We went to the National Museum but found it closed for refurbishment for three years! Only when we read the sign at the front did we look up and notice that the only thing left standing was its front wall.

So then we cycled to The Temple of Heaven Park. This impressed and interested me much more than the Forbidden City which we admittedly saw when we were knackered and not really able to appreciate fully. The rain and faint mist made for an even more evocative atmosphere even though there were a lot of other tourists there. The surrounding 267 hectares of park is very green and pretty and reminded me of stately rural gardens back home with its tall trees, long neat paths and lawn.
While climbing the steps to the Echo Wall, a Chinese girl next to me moaned loudly in English to her Chinese boyfriend that there were 'so many foreigners here'. Bloody nerve! What does she expect to find at one of China's biggest tourist attractions?!

I am aware that I have been moaning a lot about other people of late but I like to think my observations are amusing to others and not just me and Ric. Today we encountered yet more classic examples of terrible tourist behaviour. The first was at the hostel this morning when a young Mancunian student (not that I have anything against Northerners) went up to the receptionist and asked in an accent as thick, loud, slow and grating as you like whether she could use 'juust the computuur - buut not the intuurnet' and whether that would cost less than the usual 1Yuan per ten minutes (about 7 pence!). It is a wonder the poor girl behind the counter refrained from either smiling or smacking her. I mean - talk about stingy stereo-types! It was embarrassing.

Then just now in the restaurant we went to for dinner, an American family came in. Before they even sat down they spent a good ten minutes studying the 'English, we need ENGLISH menu' with several members of staff, discussing where to sit, what they could drink that was 'safe', how hygienic they thought the place was and establishing that 'we need quality meat - is it quality meat?' as well as whether they could make sure it was all 'steamed not fried?'

Again I find myself asking 'Why do people like this even bother going on holiday??!!'

Mind you, sometimes we all have our moments and as Ric hit his head for the umpteenth time on a low door frame today, he only just managed to rein in his diatribe against the Chinese, so that only I was party to his cries of 'f**k these short arsed f**king chinks'. Tut tut Richard.

I've decided that I probably shouldn't start writing a book until I have a clearer idea of its plot. Radio beckons again. We are also concerned that we'll need jobs in order to secure a property in Sydney. I can hardly believe that we'll be there in less than a week now!

Tomorrow we will hire the bikes again and go to the Summer Palace. Ric also wants to visit Mao's preserved body over in Tienanmen Square. Hmmm- I think I can live without ticking that one off my Things To Do list.