10 January 2008: Bye Bye Beijing

Today was our last day in Beijing. Our plane to Shanghai left at 8.20pm, and we had no tours booked. We had some time to kill.
I was interested to see more of the famous hutong houses and laneways, and was keen to wander through Tian'an Men square some more. Chris and I headed out in the morning, around 10am. We wandered though the laneways and slowly made our way to The Forbidden City. We opted to walk around the palace, instead of through it again. We saw many more locals by choosing to do this.
We stumbled upon the Chinese National Theatre, which is a giant glass dome, surrounded by a man made lake. The entrance to the dome is through an underground tunnel, with a glass roof. The building was quite spectacular, and looked like it would be even more so at night time. I wish we had seen it the day before so I could get some night photos of it, but I guess we lucked out!
Chris and I continued wandering, past the Chinese parliament, which was guarded by many army soldiers. We stopped for a few photos when we reached the vast open space of Tian'an Men Square. At one end of the square there is the entry to the Forbidden City, and a giant painting of Mau. (Mau is the guy who founded New China (PRC) I think...) In the center of the square is a large pillar memorial, which I think is supposed to commemorate everyone who has died for China or something along those lines. Lying behind this pillar there is the Moselum, where the body of Mau is kept. His body is on display some days of the week, at certain times, but Chris and I got there at the wrong time.
There were many people in the square, trying to hawk their wares. Most of the trashy goods seemed to be very poorly made imitation Beijing Olympic Games hats, gloves, and mobile phone accessories. We were also hassled by some sprukers who claimed to be "students of art". They offered to take us to their gallery, but I had read about such scams, and we politely declined.
Earier, along Wafujing Street, we had been hassled by a pair of girls who claimed to be "students of English". They asked us if we would help them practice English over some drinks, but that was another scam I had read about.
After walking around the square a little, and trying several strategies to avoid the hawkers, I was starting to get hungry. In search of food, we headed out of the square, and down one of the glamorous streets. I didn't see any food that looked appealing, so we took the back alley which headed back towards the square. Along the way, we saw some ducks, which looked like they might be wild ducks. I was amazed that they had not been eaten yet! There was also a couple very small and cheap little eateries along the hutong. I thought it was a bad idea to eat at one though, because they did not look very clean.
We stopped for lunch at a very clean and tidy restaurant, which we soon discovered was a Japanese restaurant. The staff were friendly, but had very little English, so Chris and I pointed at the pictures in the menu of what we wanted to eat. A 3 course lunch and some bottled water cost us about AUD$9 each. I like that value!
Following lunch, Chris and I were quite cold. We browsed through some souvineer shops, mainly because they were heated, but also to check out the junk that was being sold at inflated prices. I managed to find a Beijing plate and negotiated the price down from 130RMB to 80RMB. I got the feeling I could have gotten the price even lower, but it was only my first try, so I thought I had done OK.
Chris spotted some official Olympic pins he liked, and asked for a discount, but sadly they could not barter on the price of Olympic merchandise. (I think that's a sign that the pins are genuine!)
We made our way back to the hotel, and wondered through more allyways. We unwittingly wandered into the YWCA shelter, and had a brief encounter with some of the staff there. One spoke English, and appeared very friendly. She explained that they look after sheltered women, and we should not take photos. :( I had thought it looked more like a primary school until she explained what they used the building for.
I was now tired, and had done more than enough aimless wandering for one day. We headed back to the hotel, collected our luggage, and jumped into a taxi to the airport. The traffic was heavy, and the taxi ride took longer than I thought, but we made it to the airport with lots of time to spare.
The plane was very full, and there was no delay in taking off. However, about 20 minutes before landing, the airline staff informed us that there was very poor viability due to fog, and that the plane will land at Hangzhau, not Shanghai as planned.
After waiting on the plane for what seemed like longer than the flight time, we were ushered off the plane and onto a coach. There were two other Australians on the trip, so we talked with them. Some other nice people helped Chris and I translate the directions of airline staff.
The coach took us to a nice, but very "Asian" hotel, where we spent the night, waiting for the fog to clear.