It's the end of the beard as we know it....

Nearly a month no blog....we are now in Mongolia, but I need to update on the rest of our China tour.

Last blog we were killing time in Suzhou, waiting for our overnight train to Xi'an. We arrived, left our bags at the hotel, breakfasted on dumplings, and then grabbed a tandem to cycle round the city walls (13km in all, and Patrick will tell you he did most of the work). We then grabbed a cab and headed to the Big Goose Pagoda, the monastery ofTripitaka (you know, Great Sage equal of Heaven), where we spent a couple of hours looking for some sign of the Monkey King, but all we could find were some crappy figurines, so we left.

That night we dined in the Muslim Quarter and then headed to a nightclub. I can't remember the name of it, but apparently Chelsea Clinton went there when her Dad was visiting Xi'an. We think it must have been gay night, because there were many more males on the dance floor than females, or maybe that's just China. They sold beer by the dozen and Vodka only by the bottle.

The day after was Terracotta Warrior day, which was not as inspiring as I imagined, but we managed to get the requisite hand-stand photo, and then headed back to town, where we were able to find a bar street......Saturday, we headed to the shops to purchase some clippers for the great shave and then proceeded to search for a bar that might show the Rugby between Aus and NZ. When we were heading out that night our wallet was stolen from the bag. Not being able to watch, Australia losing, lost wallet, and a delayed train due to a power shortage at the train station did not leave us with lasting loving memories of Xi'an. We were prepared for such an eventuallity (the wallet), so no major drama, it was just the inconvenience of losing cards that need to be replaced, which is pretty hard when you don't know where you are going to be from week to week. A Danish couple travelling with us, also had theirs taken the same night, so travellers to Xi'an beware.

After Xi'an we visited Pingyao, where the Great Shave took place, and then headed to Beijing, via the Hanging Monastery and the Yunang Caves near Datong (which is charmless, but worth the stop to visit the Grottoes which were stunning). Our train arrived in Beijing just in time for us to catch the Paralympic Closing Ceremony fireworks over Tianamen Square.

From Beijing we did the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square (which were all amazing, but we have now been in Mongolia for two weeks and the scenery here is the most striking and magnificent we've seen) and enjoyed Peking Duck at an end of tour dinner. We then had to move out of our expensive accomodation and once again fend for ourselves at the cheaper end of town. We found a hostel that had free washing (you would think laundry would be cheap in China, you know Chinese Laundry and all that, but it was very expensive so free washing was a major bonus). The other major bonus was the pub next door with pizza, Belgium beer and wi-fi access (hence all the phone calls).

After ditching all our summer clothes, which had been worn, washed and sweated in for the last 5 months, and engaging in some fierce haggling for some new winter clothes, we were ready to meet the Trans-Mongolian.

---

---