Beijing

so after arriving in beijing to humid and smoggy 29c conditions and heading out to the acrobatics, then onwards to the bar district (via nearly every other district) and further onwards to bed; the 2nd day in beijing was quite uneventful. i awoke to extremely heavy rain which persisted in varying degrees of heaviness all morning. that afternoon, however was crisp and clear, so i headed (partly on foot, partly on bus) to the clothing market. the market, from the outside appeared similar to a large department store, however once inside this veil was lifted to reveal a typical, bustling asian market - full of small stalls stacked high with all sorts of clothing, shoes, bags, fabrics, etc.




it was quite busy and the vendors pounced on you as soon as you let your gaze linger too long on a particular garment so i wandered around for an hour or so - just looking thankyou. i decided i'd better pick up a couple of items for the missus and selected a couple of candidates, however the asking price was probably more than i'd pay back home so a heated exchange followed in which i think i walked away twice before handing over something like 10% of the asking price.



that evening i'd kind of arranged to meet a friend from melbourne for dinner. our agreed meeting place had been only slightly more specific than 'the general beijing area' and so i headed straight there. 90min of sms's and very badly spoken mandarin later mindy and i had assimilated our positions closely enough to make eye contact. we ate a nice meal which was fairly close to what we'd ordered but unfortunately didn't have the courage to try the 'fried wikipedia' which appeared to be some sort of green salad.




the following day was sunny and perfect for exploring around the centre of town. i checked out the tiananmen square area and forbidden city complex and attempted to have a look inside the working peoples cultural museum but was repelled by security for carrying a camera i think. after having my photo taken with an unknown chinese man by his unknown chinese wife i proceeded towards a cafe with an ex-pat flavour to meet up with a pom i'd met on the train. it was a warm and sunny morning and sitting in an outdoor courtyard eating a decent english breakfast was a breath of fresh air - the food (and everything else) in beijing was excellent but i was looking forward to getting home and this cafe had really hit the spot.



that afternoon i spent a couple of hours wandering around the temple of heaven gardens. some areas were a little touristy but there were plenty of superb areas with locals practicing traditional instruments or playing games - it was quite beautiful. the following day i jumped on the 919 express bus to badaling with Mindy to check out the wall. it was far better than i'd expected. i'd imagined that tourists would be able to view the wall from a bit of a platform and perhaps walk along a short segment of it. in fact we were able to walk along it for a number of (surprisingly strenuous) kilometers. there were crowds near the entrance and a toboggan, but the farthest stretches of the wall were the most mountainous, least visited and most spectacular.



we spent several hours walking and taking photos before returning to beijing via the 919, enjoying a quick, hearty and cheap meal and then i headed to the airport to fly home (but not before bumping into the bloody dutch again :P )! beijing airport was appropriately enormous and sparkling new, and even tho it was about 2100hrs i was forced to change into shorts and t-shirt before getting on the plane.



my flight back to australia was almost uneventful; i was flying with qantas and the flight to sydney was long but practically empty. i changed in sydney to a domestic flight and on boarding the plane discovered i knew one of the stewards! paul soon informed me that i had been allocated the wrong seat and quickly reseated me in business class :D if only he flew international flights..



so i landed in melbourne mid-arvo and breezed through customs before meeting (a very anxious) sarah in the terminal! because i was in business class i was one of the first off the plane and my bag was one of the first out too so all up i'd been in the airport for less than 20min. this was actually a bit of a theme for the whole trip - even flying from africa to europe the customs procedure involved the arduous process of walking through an automatic door. really glad i got all that documented evidence of vaccinations before i left..



so thanks for reading and commenting, the blog was mainly a personal memory aid but it's been good to be able to share a couple of stories and some photos as well. all up we have about 3600 photos so there might be a few distillations before an email goes around. hope to catch up with everyone soon!!

Ulaanbataar to Beijing (or: The Very Long Train Ride - Part 2)

this part of the journey was going to be quite short, we departed UB at 8am and arrived in Beijing at 2pm the following day. still we were going to be passing through some interesting scenery (and a change of gauge).



in many ways i think the first part of the trip was more exciting - 5 days with about a dozen foreigners amongst 400 hundred odd locals. when you're the odd ones out you tend to bond much more quickly. the 2 georgian blokes who operated the russian restaurant car didn't speak a word of english (neither did their menu) but we got along with them really well and had a couple of great nights. the restaurant cars on the mongolian and chinese legs were cheaper, cleaner, spoke more english and, well.. were more restauranty. the trains during the leg to beijing was also predominantly tourists with few locals. the stops were unexciting with no dodgey goods being sold and the attendants running the show were much stricter and more likely to keeps things clean (like the toilets).



i was sharing my cabin with the australian bloke (only other one on the train as far as i could tell) and two mongolian women (who slept for pretty much the whole 30 hours straight). the pom was, again, way down the other end of the train so i spent most of my time with the two groups of dutch friends i had met along the way. although there was less mingling on this leg the scenery was much more exciting. after passing through the gobi and crossing the border (again a lengthy process although we were lifted in the air at one stage to change the wheels) we immediately encountered many more people, typically tending to their crops or (somewhat mysteriously) planting rows of trees next to the rail line.



as we drew closer to beijing the countryside became more hilly and we even caught glimpses of wall fragments (the 'great'ness and genuineness of which was hotly disputed). we passed through steep valleys, alongside wide rivers and under impressive bridges. unfortunately we also passed through countless tunnels of all lengths which made photography a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' kind of sport. on encountering the outskirts of beijing the scenery changed to heavy industry, construction and smog (although i've been repeatedly informed it's just fog, apparently common in springtime).



beijing itself it very busy, very neat and very large. at every opportunity there are neat flower beds (where in UB there were dust gardens) and the streets and back streets are lined with locals playing board or dice games and tiny shops selling all kinds of animal, vegetable and mineral. beijing is surrounded by 6 (!!) ring roads and the CBD is apparently about 40km across so you can imagine the size of the tourist map i picked up. navigating the streets is however very easy, as most signs have both english and mandarin and the city has a sensible grid layout. after leaving the train i said goodbye to all my friends and set off to my own (pre-booked) accomodation. after showering i set off down the street to find some lunch and promptly bumped into most of them again doing the same.



that evening i went to the see the national acrobatics group perform which was nothing short of spectacular. on the bus on the way there i met two australian girls who were about to set off on the train towards st petersburg. it turns out kat had studied at UQ so we exchanged information before the show. on the way home i again bumped into the (bloody!) dutch who were on the way to check out beijing's (apparently only??) bar and club district. well 'bar street' turned out to be a deceptively long walk, during which we didn't pass a single bar. when we got there though there were plenty of bars and people and the street surrounded a lake which was quite picturesque at nighttime. there was karaoke, heaps of tourists and expensive beer so we didn't stay long. on the way home (and only about 200m from my hotel!!) i found a bar with a mix of locals and foreigners, cheap beer, a live band and a much better atmosphere than anything we found earlier in the evening.



so this morning i woke up to the sound of thunder and heavy rain and decided to do a few inside things until the weather calmed down somewhat. the next couple of days i will check out the (real) wall (take the 919 express bus from some bus station) and the central tian'an men square and forbidden city and gardens complex. i might also swing by one of the closer markets to see if i can get my wallet stolen for a nice leather jacket.

ps. i'll be home tuesday afternoon if i don't get a chance to write again before i leave.