Beijing think again

The city seemed so not charming to me during my first trip passed December. The bloody cold weather added to the disadvantages of being 10 people and the fact that we were moving from one place to another by private van made it difficult to appreciate the 2 weeks. It was not my way to have a travel I guess. Anyway, I thought “come again Beijing” and decided to renew my opinion about the city by going through it with my girlfriend I had not seen since I left France. I moved two days before her landing time and started preparing the whole thing: I did not want this trip to be a mess as usual. I was kinda hoping that these two lonely days would help me calm down Dalian’s atmosphere which had become oppressing to me somehow. So let’s forget about the crap and jump on the plane, check out Beijing again.

While heading to downtown with the airport shuttle bus, I was counting ring road 5.. ring road 4..3...2....1. Man you better not get lost in this little town, I thought. Thus I thought "look who's talking" and passed 1 hour looking for my hostel.
Settled I was, and as my dad’s best son, I took long walks in the city during the first two days. Not that I was planning to, but probably as every tourist in Beijing does, I did not take a good look to my guide’s map scale. So I started to walk from one corner of the map to the other, with the least comfortable shoes ever, getting lost every 30 minutes. Anyway, is there a better way to get to know a city than observing it at 5 km/h? 15 kilometers walked, Hotels booked, places of interest located, I started camping at the hotel, trying to reanimate my feet and get to know some backpackers.