Last day in Tianjin

Beijing was warm and overcast much of the time - here its hot - during the daytime and warm at night.

Today we caught the bus to the suburbs of Tianjin - what a difference a few miles makes, although it is like a building site here - it is relatively clean, but go a bit out and you notice the difference - now I know where all those plastic bottles go to - into the river and part of someones yard or roof cover.

Any way today we went to Yangliuqing - to see the Shi Family Courtyourd - basically it was an old house owned by a rich person that has now been renoovated - inside included a theatre to entertain friends and dignitaries. It was built about a hundred years ago - it looked pretty good and next to it they have built a shpping area partly in the same style but also in traditional Chinese style - so lots of red everywhere.

On the way back the bus driver stopped to help out another fellow driver - he needed some diesal - so he syphoned some off of our bus for his - you should have seen the expression on his face when he got a mouth full of diesel ... yuuuck. A good deed though. I wonder if Alan does that sort of thing - probably a daily occurence.....

We saw quite a few tourists - non Chinese in Beijing - but I have not seen one other than us two here.

The big thing of course is the population - it is very true there are so many people here - everywhere - but it's not intimidating at all - very friedly in fact - lots of so called students keep talking to us to practice their English. That's ok but its difficult to get away from them.

Sorry still no pics we have taken lots butttttttt - maybe next time - Tomorrow we set off for the seaside to the coastal town of Quingdae, will write again soon.