Day 60 - To China

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Day 60 to Beijing

Awoke early for our last transiberian train. The train we were taking was number 4 which is a favourite used by foreigners and was slightly better quality than we had been used to. We again were sharing with Russian's, could not believe it the whole trip since St Petersburg we had shared with Russians so again there was not much chit chat. Train left at 07:15 and we should arrive in Beijing at 14:00 the following day.

Our journey passed through the Gobi Desert, this was for several hours of the day, just a huge expanse of sand and little else. We finally arrived at the Mongolia / Chinese border at around 19:00. The Mongolian's were pretty swift with their border/custom procedures, basically you surrendered your passport for around 30 minutes and on it's return the train moved about 100 metres and more checks were made and then we were on our way to the Chinese border town at about 21:30, still 2 1/2 hours just to check passports and trains (for stowaways apparently!)

So got to the Chinese border town of around 10pm, same procedures were to take place here except it was well after 1am before we were finally on our way towards Beijing. So all in all 5 hours at the border, it just seems a collosal waste of time! Mind you because the Russian / Mongolian tracks are not the standard gauge this adds more time as all the carriages need theirbogs (toilets) changed so they are the same size. They do this for EACH carridge and there are some 14 carridges so you can imagine.

Anyway finally time to get some sleep...

Day 61

Woke up bright and early for our free breakfast in the restuarant car! We had been given both breakfast and lunch tickets and as we were now in China we had high expectations on what to expect from the chinese restaurant car. Everything I had read pointed to this being the best food on the entire Transiberian.
What we had though was not good, the restuarant car very plain, minimalist in decor and did not compare to the Mongolian car (Wooden carvings of Horses, Bow and Arrows decorated on the walls, really felt authentic). The food was awful and was not worth waking up for, 2 eggs and bread and jam. The lunch was no better all I can say I hope this is because they were serving up a buffet type lunch with the same food for everyone.

As we starting getting closer to Beijing the scenery changed to dramatic hills, valleys and lakes and was stunning. I was taking photos at every opportunity, this was definatley one of the better sections of the Transiberian scenery wise and accommpanied with bright blue skies was breathtaking.

We arrived around 2pm, all 9000kms from St Petersburg to Beijing completed in a period of just on 3 weeks. Pretty much to my schedule but we were not finished yet. Still had another 2000+ kms to Hong Kong next week 😊

Took a taxi to the Happy Dragon hostel with it's blinking neon lights it looked anything but a hostel. Staff were excellent though and we were soon enjoying some AC in the room while we organised ourselves. We went out for our first Chinese dinner and decided on a local restaurant. Unfortunately one thing about China, the majority do not speak a lot of english and actually it wasn't until the Olympic games in 2008 that Beijing improved all its signage , before then you could not travel the metro unless you could read chinese!
The local restaurant menus were also all in chinese which is pretty much the norm for China as well so I've been told. Not to worry at these prices we had to try something and were guided by the pictures and attempting to speak to staff with sign and body language (Ania's duck impression was pretty good with the flapping arms) but eventually we ordered some pretty amazing food. The portions are also pretty gigantic we found out and ended up taking some home.

The other great thing about the HD Hostel was it's location, after dinner we took a walk and within 10-15 minutes we were at the Forbidden City. Pretty impressive at night and we planned to visit this in the next few days, it is definitley a must see.
So far we were really loving China, the people, the food and the weather were all fantastic. There is also so much to see in Beijing we were already considering extending our stay and shortening our days in HK.

We went back to our hostel and crashed out exhausted.

Day 62

First day in Beijing and we were off on the Metro to Tianemem square which is the biggest square in the world. Some 800 metres long and xx wide.
I was really impressed by the metro system, it is so easy to use, exceptionally cheap (just 2 Yuan to go anywhere in Beijing which is the equivilent of 20p) and very modern with Air con, digital metro maps with moving arrows, english prompts when arriving at stations just a huge improvement of any metro systems I have seen before! The only thing is don't ever expect to get a seat as they always seems to be full 😊

Before we knew it we were in T'amen square and walking around in some intense heat. Today they reckoned it would hit 37 degrees, wow. The thing with Beijing most days the visibility is sooo poor, this results in Skies that are hazy and grey and in general not good for Photograhy. We gave the Forbidden City a miss today as was just to hot and headed out for the Temple of Haven which is in the south of the City. This is the most impressive Temple in the City apparently and is inside a massive park. We paid for entry to the park but skipped the actual entry to the temple as seeing it from outside was enough for us.

Beijing is scattered with plenty of these green spaces that you just would not expect of a city of this size. I would definitley recommend visiting the parks alone as most have some incredible views of the city. (if you don't mind the short hikes up the hills)

We got back to the hostel and decided to check out the bar, it is a really good setup they have here. Big screen TV, fully stocked bar and kitchen for ordering food and great atmosphere. Can not recommend this hostel enough if you are on a budget and people of all ages here as well. Met a British bloke who nows lives in Adelaide and managed to see the NZ Vs Slovakia World Cup game. As it was the first time NZ had been in it for well over 30 years was keen to see how this would go and surprised when we pulled off a 1-1 draw for our first ever WC point in history!
After a few too many beers in celebration we headed for bed..

Day 63

Another hazy day but with Rain and thunderstorms on the horizon for the next 2 days we decided to go to the Forbidden City. Basically The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty around 1400. It is staggering but the FC consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m2. Wow! Why was it called the FC you might ask, well no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission!

Now we were off and we spent the next 4 hours or so wandering around the FC, tip do not bother with the audio guide, collassal waste of money as we bought one thinking we could share it but the chinese are quite clever about this. You can not control the audio guide it goes off automatically when you enter an area and you can not repeat it!

By now it was soo hot it was unbelieveable, also with the masses of people there it was really hard work. We did expect though we could go inside some of the palaces and pavilions but in general it was a matter of pushing through to the front door and trying to snap a quick photo from there 😊

After several hours we covered most of the Fc but to do it justice you are probably best to either go in a much cooler time of the year, or do it over 2 days as there is so much to see.

The heat was a killer so we headed back to the Hostel by foot and caught up on some more World Cup action before heading to bed.

Day 64

Woke up to rain and heavy thunderstorms, and looking like it was going to be like that all day. The good thing was it was a lot cooler, around 27 degrees so was some relief and we headed to the famous Silk Market. For those who have not heard of this it is basically a huge (like 6+ story building) filled with fake goods, Prada, Gucci, Dior you name it they have it. I even saw Zara and H&M! Ania was a bit like a little girl in a big toystore here, me on the other hand don't particulary like shopping, especially when the sellers are SO aggressive. At one point I had to pull Ania out of a shop because they would not let her go. Basically we worked out you offer at most 10% of the asking price, so for a Prada bag which started at 500 we actually got it for 50 Yuan (chinese money, so like £5). In fact you should never ask for the price unless you are certain you want to buy it because no matter what you do you will end up taking it pretty much for your first offer!!

I left Ania to it in the end and we met up later had some dinner and watched some more World Cup action. There were some decidedly unhappy Germans in the bar after the Serbian's managed a win. We met this 60 year old German man who had also completed the transiberian and was off to Tibet next. I guess it was only 45 hours by train so why not?

Tomorrow we hoped for better weather.

Day 65

Weather was a slight improvement today so headed out to Jungrau park which houses several pavilions overlooking the City. You can get good views here on days with decent visibility however it is very rare to see days in Bejing where you can actually see anything other than smog and haze. This was the case today, but got some reasonable photos.

From here we toured the Hulongs which was the old streets and alleyways of Beijing where the locals live and work. You can easily get yourself lost here but we did stumble across a gem of a place for lunch. It was such a locals place with the cook steaming dumplings outside in the street, we then ate inside where there were a couple of old rusty tables and chairs with people huddled around a tv watching football. Great food actually, the dumplings are a must to try here and extrememly cheap, we managed to eat 2 lots plus a beer and the total cost was like £1.40. Wow 😊

We then hit the lakes, these are awesome retreats in Beijing and make you feel like you are not in such a big city. Boats were on the lake and the canals were very pretty. After walking around the lakes for a few hours we then headed back to watch the Australia / Ghana game.

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Photos

Train entering China
Amazing scenery as we close in on Bejing

Around Tiananmen Square
Biggest square in the World, 880 m by 500 m.

Temple of Haven
Praised as the most impressive Temple in Beijing.

Jingshan Park
One of the high Pavilions in the park.

Forbidden City at dusk
Stunning just as the sun goes down.

Inside the Forbidden City
Hot, humid and grey...

Around the FC.
Huge open spaces.

One of the Throne Rooms
Forbidden City.

Around the Hutongs of Beijing
Basically where locals reside, though this photo is from a more touristy part!

Comments

[Mike T]

Great Photo Daz, looks awesome.