Out of Beijing

---

Draft for Tues. May 1 China National holiday



I realize that today is going to be a do-very-little day for me as getting around the city will be difficult.



I got up early, more or less, and sent some emails and tended to this blog; am packed for 4:00pm departure for Beijing S. Railway Station. Because of the national holiday, there is no metro running. I have to take a taxi which will cost about Y40 or so! We’ll see -- turns out to be right on the mark, or the Yuan.



Need to pay up at hostel 4 days @Y200/day -- waste of money for this dirt trap of a Sun Garden hostel, No. 19Dongsi Qi Tiao Dongcheng District Beijing -- wi-fi password tianyuan2005laoxu. (Do not bother go there and what is more hostel will line you up with a cheat of a tour guide/operator, Alexander, who will take you to the Juyongguan when you are told you will see Badaling -- cheat and a lier). Room not clean, dust everywhere! Washroom not particularly clean nor nice. But it did work out for me in a pinch. 9 Dragons was so much more suitable, helpful and clean and cheaper too!!

(Psst: just between you and me, or maybe I am wrong; asked to pay, and I only give, them Y600, advantage tourist.)



To be honest, I can’t wait to get the hell out of Beijing.2. Not that it was a mistake returning, but things just went so wrong for me here this time; here, I was responsible for all the arrangements and without Chinese, things can get a little hairy!



Really, nothing went well, if I’m honest. Trip to Badaling Wall, not good, nightlife on Goulu not good, hostel stinks. Only one positive was eating at the nice restaurant on Monday after visiting the 2 interesting temples; oh yes, they were very nice to see and photograph.



I need to go for a walk now and eat lunch at the same place I met ZhangQian wen/Helen.

I get to the train station and it is packed with Beijingers and it is hard to impossible to manoeuver about the station entrance but I get into the place and buy a beer to relax before making my way to Waiting Room #8 for the 1163 train leaving Beijing at 17:03pm and arriving PingYao 7:00am the next day, May2. My train ticket is May 1 but I intended to do the trip on Apr. 30 and booked an additional day in PingYao??? (My mistake and Young Ho at the Harmony Backpackers will wonder what has become of me as she asks when I arrive. Fortunately, no cost to pay for my mistake.)



Once boarded on car #11, the poor and standing class, it is a long hard haul to relax; cannot eat because I am sure this would be next to impossible while standing????



What have I got myself into anyway and will I really make it. Well, lucky for me, at about midnight a young girl from TaiYuan, just N. of PingYao, lets me share a piece of her seat; she is about 20 yrs. old and travelling with some of her friends back home from Beijing holiday. We only connect later that night and chat and they ask a bunch of questions, and we become friends; now, they let me sit longer and once one the young girl gets off the train, they say the seat is mine. I try to relax as there is just no way I would be able to find sleep on this train.



Oh, by the way, standing in the aisle, I would never believe the number of times people would ask to get past, some more than a few times and still others again and again! That and there is service carts continually passing along the aisle of the train selling fruit and food and drinks, but no leng pijiu?

---