I like Chinese food the waiters never are rude

Sorry about the delay in our blog, the Great Firewall of China does not allow blogging or Facebook.

Well we have made it to China with an overnight flight with Jetstar. Arrived at our hostel at 3:00 am with a taxi driver who could not find our hotel hidden in a hutong (narrow lane) that was blocked by a construction truck and wanted us to walk down it without knowing where we were going and no lights.

Upon arrival at the hostel The Happy Dragon Courtyard there was confusion over our booking and they put us in a dorm to ourselves (not happy), the next day it was all sorted and moved into a basic double bedroom with ensuite. The Hostel is in a traditional hutong structure of a large entry gate with rooms around a courtyard. The courtyard has been built up to have a café and restaurant. It is close to Zhangzizhonglu subway station (don’t get Michael to pronounce it),which has proven to be a real bonus.

Well the tourist map shows the whole of Beijing and makes it look small, so a quick train trip to Tiananmen Square (blocked in a google search) burst that bubble. The place is massive and not just the square, all the buildings are huge and keep the whole place in perspective. Walked around the square and to the Arrow Tower which was one of the inner gates and which was huge also. Even though there would have been thousands of people there you did not feel crowded.

 

Full credit to the ancient Chinese on being able to build on such a grand scale. The city is clean and modern with no hawkers like the other countries we have visited. Covered a fair bit of ground looking at the shops and alleyways. Had some street food, but didn’t try the bugs, scorpions and seahorses on sticks.

Decided to get our jackets and boots for the train trip, which turned into an adventure. We wanted to get proper stuff and not the fakes that are everywhere. Michael looked up one place in a major shopping centre. We were approached by a nice English speaking couple who said they were art students and they invited us to view their work. So we went along to the 27^th floor of some building to a room full of Chinese art (yes alarm bells should be ringing by now) they went through their spiel on the art and its meaning for half an hour and then the sell started. We did not buy anything and later found it was one of the many scams in Beijing. Michael did however give the attractive impoverished art student a donation of $15.00!   Other scams included overpriced bananas, not getting change from vendors and gem/tea shops. We have managed to avoid the last one.

Went to the Silk Market where they were offering Columbia, Canadian Goose and other top brands for around RMB 150 ($25). We did not want to find out in minus 15 degrees in Siberia that these were made of paper so we passed the deal up.

Finally found a shop with the right jackets and got a Chinese version of Goretex. Michael could not find any shoes in his size and they said that no one is that size in China. He pointed out that Yao Min would be his size and got a laugh.

Next day headed out on a tour to the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu. Got to see the countryside and wonder where all the people live, as there are 21 million people in Beijing. I was still not 100% recovered from my operation and to save half an hour climbing the wall we took the cable chair to the top. The Wall is impressive and scale and size has to be seen to be believed.  There were too many stairs for me so I let Michael go off and explore the wall and he disappeared for an hour and was happy with what he saw and found a cache. Back down on the chair lift.  I could have opted for the toboggan but thought better of it.

Well the Telstra ad may be right that the wall was built by Emperor Nasi Goring to keep the rabbits out as we have proof of some captured rabbits at the wall.

Usual hawkers at the bottom with nice Obama pictured like Mao t-shirts. Even our art student paintings were there at greatly reduced prices.

On Monday went to the Forbidden City which is another huge complex and interesting to walk around, but with 800 buildings and 7 palaces it gets to be a bit much to take in after 4 hours still well worth seeing.

We organised a night tour with the hostel through the same company as the Great Wall tour. As there was only Michael and I they took us around by car to see the Birds Nest and Water Cube (very nice buildings), Hi Hai Lake, National Opera building and Tiananmen Square lit up. As a side trip got to walk around a few other areas as well. Well worth the trip

Last full day in Beijing has been spent looking at hutongs and soaking up the local environment. A spot of rain so Michael thought were looked like locals again with our ponchos on.

On the train to Ulaanbaatar for 29 hrs and 33 minutes starting at 8:00 am. The journey was good and Anne you would feel at home here with real working class hours for meals. 

Our  "Voucher" entitled us to lunch at 11:30 to 12:00 and dinner 5:30 to 6:00. The kitchen Nazi was on hand to make sure we did not enjoy the meal too much as it was weight watchers size with rice. At dinner Michael ordered a bottle of Great Wall of China Red (Cabernet, Gamay Noir) and shared it with another table. They were packing the place up at 6:00 and were pushing us out the door. As it was Michael's second red wine of the trip he said it was better than the Dalat one.

Hit Chinese customs at 10:00 pm and got cleared then the train was taken away for two hours to have new bogies (wheels) put on for the wider Russian/Mongolian tracks. After this was done we had to clear Mongolian customs and finally got to bed at 2:30 in our comfortable carriage. The first leg of the trip we were the only people in the carriage and our guard (below) was quite happy to chat in pigeon Chinese English.

  

  

 The Chinese country side was very nice rural and mountainous. However once we hit Mongolia it was a flat and dry place as you can see from the pictures.

 

Have made it to UB (Ulaanbaatar) with a hectic taxi ride to the hostel with the hostel owner who walked to the station in 10 minutes and took 30 minutes to get back as the driver did not know about a new bridge that takes you away from the city. Strange that anyone can be a taxi driver and there is a standard set of fares (you don't have to drive in a marked taxi, your own car will do).

The city is dirty and semi chaotic, but the people are very well dressed and nice to us.