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Hi there

Well after a mammoth 12 hour train journey from Xi'an to Beijing I finally made it. I had a really uncomfortable time in Xi'an train station, where few english signs or speakers, and an overcrowded station made it a little intimidating.. but I managed to get some help to find from where my train departed.. and after a few hours sat down being stared at (yes.. proper stared at !).. finally I was on the train and on the way to Beijing. I was travelling by hard sleeper which is basically 6 beds in a cabin.. the upper class being soft sleeper which is 4 beds in cabin. By some freak piece of luck i was bunked directly opposite the only other westerner on the train ! A german girl.. who has been living in China for a year and a half. So we chatted and she gave me some useful tips about Beijing. When the train came in we travelled by bus together to the main area of town and went out seperate ways..

My hostel is literally accross the road from the train station.. so I booked in straight away.. it was only 8am.. so i had a welcome shower and then some breakfast and sat down in the net cafe for a couple of hours updating the blog and catching up with people. Then I set off on an orientation tour.. just wondering in the direction of monuments and things like that. I found Tiananmen Square which is huge.. infact.. everything I have seen so far is simply huge.. I went to the Forbidden City to see if I could have a walk around but it was closing shortly after so I decided to shelve that one for later in the week. when I got back to the hostel I arranged a day tour the following day (Weds) to include the Great Wall.. one of the main reasons why I had come to China.. I was pretty shattered.. so the evening consisted of some dinner, a couple of beers.. and bed...

So.. the following day I woke at 6am as the tour was setting off early. Breakfast was good.. i had noodles and hard boiled eggs, some steamed bread and a banana.. it was a good start to the day.. and all for GBP1.50!! We set off at 7:30.. met the tour guide Bruce.. he was very well spoken.. and extremely knowledgable. We picked up 3 south american students who currently live in Tibet en route.. two from Panama.. and one from Venezuala..

First we went to a jade factory / shop where they showed us how jade is produced, how it was used by rich emporers in the past, and how it is used today.. and then they tried to sell us a lot of stuff. We then went on to a tomb of one of the Emporers of the Ming Dynasty.. he and his emporess are buried beneath the mountain that sits there... well.. amazingly they built the mountain on top of them! its called the "Mountain of Everlasting Heaven".. or something like that. Apparently, a few mountains in that area are false.. man made.. and as such have emporers beneath them.. amazing stuff .. We were all pretty frozen by that point.. it was between -5C & -10C.. sooooo cold.. and I couldnt find my thick socks!! So frozen toes were the order of the day..

After that we set off to the great wall.. we got to one of the north point entries.. and it was a great sight.. I climbed about 600 steps and got some good photos.. it was freezing too.. very tough conditions. I might have gone further but the british girl was moaning.. so i decided to use her as an excuse to go back down about 30 mins early.. the other crowd did too.. we were all set for lunch really.. I would like to go back to the great wall one day and walk a good chunk of it.. the conditions just made it too hard today. We then went for lunch at an authentic chinese restaurant and thawed out a little..

After lunch we went to a silk factory.. that was quite interesting.. seeing how the take the silk from the silk worm (you can eat the worm too!) and use it to produce quilts and duvets.. so nice and soft. Then we went to 'Dr-Tea'!! to teach us about tea and how to drink it.. we drank jasmine.. pu'er (pronounced "pure").. black dragon.. and lychee.. i liked the lychee tea.. so bought some.. and she gave me a free novelty peeing pig.. ! Used to test the temperarture of the water (he only pees when its hot enough)

The following day after breakfast I decided to set off to see the Forbidden City. First thing to mention is how cold it is.. I'm sure the temperature has been dropping day by day. Its so cold it stings the face as you walk.. its a whole new cold experience for me.. that I'm not enjoying..

So the Forbidden City is the largest collection of preseved ancient wooden buildings in the world. The walled enclosure was formerly occupied for around 500 years by Emporers of the Ming and Qing dynastes. During this time no person could enter or leave the city without the express permission of the ruling Emporer, which is why it was named the Forbidden City. Its a tough entrance as you are bombarded by people trying to sell you maps, to act as your guide, and just trying to get you talking to, in one way or another, get something from you. I had managed to get through without succombing to any of them (!) and was the able to enter through the "Meridian Gate" which is the south gate. This was I think the most impressive of all the areas that I saw. It has a stream running through it called the "Golden Stream" which is shaped like a Tatar bow and you cross on one of the 5 marble bridges. As with all of the ancient buildings & monuments that I have seen in China, there was always an emphasis on making things look beautiful, and incredible attention to detail.. and that was evident again here. As I continued through the city there was a few interesting sights,however due to the time of year alot of the buildings were closed off due to low visitor numbers. There are some interesting cycpress trees which have been aged between 200-400 years old, and have trunks & branches with interesting contorted shapes. I walked through and out from the north gate in a couple of hours... it was an interesting sight, however I do think I lost out a little by coming at this time of year.

I spent the afternoon & evening wondering around with intervals in coffee shops and internet cafe's trying to thaw out a little. For dinner I went to a street market, which has been created to be stereotypical I suspect, as every 4th or 5th stall offers exactly the same food in exactly the same layout.. there were token snake and starfish thrown at me.. I doubt much of it gets eaten, but rather is there for show and discarded afterwards.. however I did have a nice wrap and some little pastry parcels of mean and veg.. so it was nice..

Last day the emphasis for me is keeping warm and not spending any money ! My train was not until 10pm so I had an entire day to spend in Beijing. I took a wonder in the morning but really it was getting too cold, so again after a couple of coffees I retreated to the internet cafe to work on this blog and plan some things for Shanghai, and Thailand.. and this is where I leave the blog really ! I will get some dinner later and then set off to the train station at 9pm..

Next stop.. Shanghai..

Will write to you soon..

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