chicksinchina

Just after sunrise we woke to the beautiful sight go the great wall. Out of our tents and we could see the sun, through the mist, just above the peaks of the adjacent mountains. A pretty good way to wake up. We had all slept quite well and were pretty happy that we could tick off having slept on the great wall. We then packed up all of our camping equipment, the few things that we had actually taken up onto the wall, all of our rubbish and headed back down the steep dirt track to the restaurant/guest house for breakfast. Breakfast was a mix of egg plant, noodles, boiled egg and Chinese pie. Chinese pie is a bit like a toasted sandwich, only quite greasy. Back into the mini van for the trip back to ... read more

Beijing Well what a sleep after the confined surroundings of the train over the past couple of nights. I really enjoyed the train ride, good company and good fun but perhaps not an experienceI would wish to repeat. After breakfast in our Premier Level 12 lounge we headed off for the day's activities. Our guide is nothing short of annoying. She takes us to all these places and then rushes us through everything. I understand that she wants us to see a lot and for us not to miss out, however, there is no point in going somewhere when we can not even take a good look around. Anyway… we still have a good day. Our first stop this morning was to Tiananmen Street. A local shopping district that also had the folk theatre. The folk ... read more

I awoke not too early with a dry throat and the smell of cigarettes wafting into the cabin. On a non smoking train, this was a bit weird. Several times we would be up closing the door between the bathroom area and the cabins to stop the smoke form coming in. Several times it was reopened and Sharon even tried to tell the smokers to stop. The scenery today was another day of stark contrasts. We were largely away from the mountains but the ground was still frozen and the desert plains were brown and barren. Last night, we had put together a list of things to do today to keep us busy. Only one thing at a time was allowed to happen, for example: if you were eating a mint, then that was it. Opening ... read more

After a well earned sleep we headed for the buffet breakfast. You never know what to expect at a buffet and I wasn't in the mood to be daring. Cornflakes with warm milk and sugar, followed by scrambled eggs and coffee was enough to get me started. Our only real stop today was Tashi Lhun Po Monastery the seat of the Panchen Lama. One of Tibet's 6 great Gilupa institutions (Yellow Hat). Built in 1447 by a nephew of Tsong Khapa and is the size of a small village. It has a mesmerising statue of Jampa, the maitreya buddha (Future buddha). The largest gilded statue in the world. The monastery is famed for the opulent tombs of the fourth and tenth Panchen Lamas, the former saw 85 kilos of god and masses of jewels used in ... read more

Our first mission today was to introduce Mr Schnitzel and Carole to Sherub. A good move as it ended up with us all having a few laughs. The first stop today was Drepung Monastery, built in the 15th century and one of the 3 pillars of the Tibetan State. Reportedly the largest monastery in the world with 7500 monks in it's hey day! Drepung means rice heap. During the peaceful revolution it remained largely untouched and is now home to about 600 monks. On entering we saw a lady cooking tsampo on pine needles that she had collected and brought to the monastery to sell. The monastery was like a small village, beautiful doors, hot chicks in China, lots of dogs for Mr Schnitzel to play with. There was a huge Thanga painted on a rock ... read more