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Published: July 21st 2017
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The Beijing Express
For our final train journey, we were joined by two gentlemen from Mongolia. Not only did they share their Mongolian food with us but thought us a new card game and gave us tips on Beijing.
The train passes through the Gobi desert, so if you don't get a trip out to it at least you get to see it on the train.
From Mongolia to China the dining carriage is like something from the Ritz with a wood carved interior, however the carriage is changed in China and resembles something from a downtown motel.
Thankfully for us, our Mongolian friends ordered breakfast for us as the menu was in Chinese. They even paid and gave us their last 4 beers. In return I offered my last 6 tea-bags and last 2 rocky bars. I think it's clear who got the best deal. We won't have our Mongolian friends with us in Beijing, and they say there is very little English, so ordering food and drink will be quite an experience. After 6 train days I have 1 word in Russian, none in Mongolian and even less in Chinese.
Customs
The Customs process is very
slow, between both takes 4 hours and the toilets are locked, my advice is stay off the sauce during this as otherwise it might be a more painful process. Speaking of toilets, there is only one roll of toilet paper per toilet and once it's gone it's gone. My advice is bring your own, as otherwise you may have to barter with the neighbors which is not ideal in an emergency situation.
Watch out for the Bogieman
Due to political stupidity or indigenous engineering, the train lines between Mongolia and China are not the same size. This means the train is brought into a big warehouse and the carriages are lifted on a hoist, while the wheelset or Bogie is changed. The process is quite slow and interesting, however after about an hour, i had seen enough, at the end it appeared to be men in red helmets, watching men in yellow helmets, watching trains. The train driver changes in China and at times gave the impression it was his first day.
Route into Beijing
The train goes through some nice mountainous terrain and watch out for the corn fields, as they appear endless. The train passes through some
big cities, with massive industrial chimneys that would send members of Greenpeace into cardiac arrest.
A Taste of Beijing
By the time we made it to our hostel we missed cut off for the afternoon/evening tour and so took a leisurely walk around the city. It is huge and the different types of scooters and tuk tuks converted into vehicles from motorbikes is quite engenius, however they also use the footpath and you need to be on the lookout.
Meal time proved to be the challenge we thought it would be, we went into a fancy restaurant and the staff had no English. Any time we asked a question chaos broke out , they would run off and come back with extra glasses. Some what weirdly , a waitress made us complete a survey that was in Chinese eventhough they knew we couldn't understand it and even when I tried asking which ones were good, she wouldn't blink an eyelid. Who knows what we were signing, thankfully not a contract for banged up abroad.
The only Paddy in the village
The Irish are everywhere and we had the pleasure of the company of a female medical student from
Dublin over in China on an exchange program and a Wexford man teaching English in Beijing, our evening was spent the Irish way sharing stories and a few drinks, though perhaps a few too many as the next day we faced The Great Wall.
The Great Wall
It is indeed, a great wall, we completed a 7km hike on it and I would advise for proper preparation, go easy on the sup, plenty of water and perhaps a banana and cereal bars. It's a tough hike but well worth it. You can walk up or get the chairlift. The chairlift is better as you get to experience more of the wall where as the trail will take 30mins out of your time. When you book with a tour company you may only get 3 hours on it and the chairlift is cheap.
We then had a traditional Chinese lunch and shared the table with a Philippino family who sold us to visit there and two Dutch ladies from the Father Stone school of Entertainment. Somewhat regrettably I won't have time to visit the Forbidden city or Tianomen Square however I am, happy I saw the great wall and along
the way on this trip, sacrafices were always going to be made.
So Long China
15 days of trains, siteseeing, sharing, not sleeping and poorly written blogs now must come to an end. My flight home will firstly stop off at Moscow, where due to social media restrictions I will have to post this there, then Paris and finally back home in time for the Sunday live game and probably a snooze.
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