Penny We spent the greater part of a day strolling around Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Located in the center of Beijing, it is an impressive site and a great place to get away from the chaotic driving and incessant honking of the city streets.  Unfortunately, the Forbidden city does not provide you any…

Penny We have returned from our trip to Mongolia and are spending a few days in Beijing before heading south.  Just wanted to let you know that we decided to fly from Ulan Bator (UB), Mongolia to Beijing, China this time.  Instead of 3 days, the total journey took 1 and 1/2 hours on a…

Joseph We woke up but did not particularly look forward to a full day in the Chinese/Mongolian border town of Erenhot (also know as Erlian, depending on what sign you read). As we went through the town it became obvious that two Westerners walking about were a bit of a novelty in Erlian.  For the…

PennyAt our hostel in Beijing, we organized our trip to Ulan Bator (UB).  We first tried to get onto the international direct train from Beijing to UB but that train was full.  Instead of waiting 4 days for the next train, we decided to take the substantially longer more tedious overnight bus and then train…

Joseph On our last night in Beijing before heading to Mongolia we decided to treat ourselves to a Peking Duck dinner.  Beijing cuisine is one of the four main styles of Chinese cooking and roast duck is the signature dish.  It was considered so highly that it used to be served only to the emperor…

Joseph Hi everyone!  In order to be outside of China during the national holiday week that begins tomorrow, we are going to Mongolia.  Chinese tourist sites become extremely crowded during this week and the prices all increase.  Also, we really want to go to Mongolia, so we’ve booked our passage. We’ll be spending the next…

Joseph First thing we had to do in the morning of our first day in China was go to the Mongolian embassy to apply for a visa.  The Mongolian embassy is in embassy row, an area just off the center of downtown Beijing.  Since our bodies are still on West Coast time it was easy…