from Pillar to Post: a traveller's guide to stuff: the End of Asia (as we know it?)

So I've come to our last day in Asia.. That's it.. Two-and-a-half months gone.. But there's more to come!
Because we didn't get to see Mao's mausoleum the day before, we made damn sure we could on this day.. Closed shoes and all! After wrestling with a group of Chinese tourists for our place in the line, we finally made it to the front and got to walk through to see Mao. It was essentially the same experience as when we saw Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, except this time the Chinese bought flowers to place inside. We were ushered through quickly past a glass coffin enclosing Mao resting peacefully. He actually looked a little plastic, which is I guess why a lot of people think it's just a Madame Tussaud's wax figure of the leader laying there. I guess we'll never know :)
Me having an interest in astronomy, we went to see Beijing's ancient observatory, one of the oldest observatories in the world housing some quite revolutionary tools including an amillery sphere and huge bronze celestial sphere. The majority of instruments were stolen during WWI, when allied forces invaded Beijing, and displayed in European museums, but they were returned by the German and French governments after the war ended. Interesting..
Chris and John, our couchsurfers from Xi'an, just so happened to be in Beijing at the time as well so we caught up with them for our last lunch in China. That made for a nice ending to our time there. While we were waiting to meet up with those guys, though, we were accosted by a lady speaking to us incessantly in Chinese out the front of the Australian embassy.. It wasn't long before the guards thought they'd better protect the Aussies and 'removed her' from the premises. Yay for embassies!
Shortly after this we were on our way to China's brand new airport Terminal 3. It took a little while but I warmed a lot to this country and its people. I was quite sad to leave and felt as though there was a lot that we missed out on - which of course in China there is! I would even go as far as saying that it's one of my favourite countries that I've visited now. 2 1/2 weeks definitely isn't enough! Oh well, there's always next time.......

I'll leave you with a few random photos from our time in China.

Photos:

good place for a pole :)

getting back at them.. having a photo taken with the Chinese on the ferry

you see these guys everywhere in China, they control the traffic and pedestrians even when there are traffic lights.. they need to or there would be chaos.. hardly anyone pedestrians obey the traffic signals