Beijing - the city of smog

When we arrived in Beijing we could already see the smog everywhere. Zoe in Yantai told us that still a lot of chinese think it is fog because that's what it's called on the news. They don't call it pollution - so bad for the people who have no idea how and it is.

In Beijing we met Lea (Nina's sister) who is travelllign with us for 3 weeks. Our Couchsurfing host Bin Que picked us up right at the airport. And again: an amazing Couchsurfing experience! Bin let us sleep in his bedroom while he slept on the floor in the living room. Bin is 30 years old and is an airplane mechanic. So he works 12 hours everyday and sometimes also nights. But when we had time, he spend it with us, showing us around Bejing. The first 2 nights, he also hosted 2 Canadians who were hitch hiking trough Asia. He brought us to a homemade noodle restaurant and to a great night market where lea could start shopping right away (addicted shopper). All the guys were surprised how much time one girl can spend at one shop haha (and this didn't change in the next couple days - poor Tom!). 

The next day we spend fully sightseeing, by visiting the forbidden city and the parks around it. WOW! It looked so unreal, just walking through the forbidden city and  ring sourrounded by beautiful buildings. Even though it is sooooo hot and humid here, the forbidden city was great. I think we drank at least 4-5 liters of water per person during that day. 

Lea is a vegetarian, chinese are not. This is a big challenge we face daily, get her some food without meat! Bin wrote us a chinese line and drawed what she does not eat. See the pictures. We found a delicious dumpling restaurant and walked a long the street, shopping a little bit from street vendors. Day after we had Beijing duck with Bin, our host. When you are in Beijing you got to try the duck! Luckily Bin found an amazing place which also had some veggies for Lea hahaha.