Beijing (first visit)

My GPS proved invaluable again tonight and the compass feature is great. I was able to navigate the 6.5 kms from Tianemen square to my hostel, through a complete maze of Hutong and saw lots of exciting sights, sounds and smells. Old men gambling, street stalls and BBQs, lanterns everywhere, people galore. I loved it.

After the expense of Dalian, where prices were equivalent to or higher than New Zealand for most places we went, I have been enjoying getting lost in all the alley-ways and discovering the street food, all of which can be bought for very low prices.

The old town parts of Beijing seem intimate and have a lot of character. The temperature here is satisfyingly cooler than South East Asia, and the hutongs really are the kind of place I would not mind sitting back in and people watching for a few hours.

While my Chinese is hardly adequate, combined with my guide book and some Chinese peoples very limited English skills, I have been able to get by. Sometimes Chinese people get a bit exasperated with me when I cannot understand anything they're saying. However I feel inspired to go back to New Zealand and be a much better Chinese Language student, particularly of the characters, as written English only seldom exists here, and only then as a courtesy (nobody seems to put much effort into getting it right).

I have run into some trouble with the Chinese language myself while I've been here

Firstly, I think I accidentally tried to sell my taxi driver my GPS. I said 'wo yao mai gps' and the taxi driver said, 'duo xiao tian', which means 'how much?', so I must have got the tone for 'mai' (meaning buy or sell - depending on which way you say it) muddled?

Also, there is no Chinese word for toilet in my guide book. The only phrase it has related to toilets is, 'wo laduzi', under the health section, which combined with gestures may perhaps deliver fast results in the form of urgent gesticulation towards the nearest toilet from some poor Chinese person, but never-the-less I am sure there is more appropriate language to ask where the bathroom is. If any Chinese friends happen to know, I would really appreciate the word for toilet in pinyin as I will be back in China before the end of my trip.

'Qingwen, Wo Laduzi' will have to work for the moment however if I get desperate.