Back in Beijing...the adventure begins!

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After a 25 hour train ride I was back in Beijing once again.
We left Hung Hom station in Hong Kong at 15.15 on 23rd October, and arrived at 16.05 on the 24th October. Ben and I had now met up with our friend Nikki who is joining us on our trans-Siberian adventure. I spent the majority of the journey horizontal on my top bunk reading and sleeping. There is not much else to do aside from a few card games and a trip to the dining cart! It went by fairly quickly.

Day One

Once through immigration, we crawled through the Beijing traffic to the Red lantern hostel in the Xicheng district. Luckily there was a room for us and we went out in search of dinner. Thankfully the lady warned us that we had ordered intestines by swirling her hand over her stomach whilst saying "pig"....we quickly changed our order! Dinner was delicious and for three people with a beer each, the bill was a whopping 54 Yuan (sarcasm intended). I'd forgotten how cheap Asia can be!

It was nice to be in Beijing and not have to run around the tourist sites, luckily all of us had been before. Instead we went in search of the Mongolian embassy so that we could find it easily the next morning.
We also tried to find an acrobatics theatre but that was in crumbling disrepair, so we gave that a miss and had a late lunch instead! We were walking down a shopping street that had clearly been built to impress for the Olympic games. It all looked very false, with Chinese style buildings housing high street shops. It made me wonder what had been destroyed in order for it to be built.

We walked back to Tiananmen square and realised how lucky we were, all of us able to pop back there for a second time - just because we happened to be nearby. There were lots of big screens and decorations up for the 60th anniversary of the PRC celebrations. It was interesting that the celebratory video was showing off all of China's modern architecture and advancements and there was not a single image of China's natural beauty and landscape - all about the modern powerful China.

In the evening we did manage to see a fantastic acrobatics show which we had booked through the hostel. We saw about fifteen people on one bike, a man juggling with nine balls, men leaping through hoops, contortionists, and all sorts. A very impressive show.

Day Two - How to spend FOUR hours buying ONE ticket

Aim of the day: Put in our application for an express Mongolian visa, and book the train to Mongolia for tomorrow.....
things did not go quite according to plan!!

We got up very early and made our way to the Mongolian embassy before it opened at 9am...only to find a notice that had been out up since yesterday saying the visa office would be closed on Monday the 26th October..PANIC! We believed there was only one train a week to Mongolia and that was tomorrow! We had visions of crazy bus/train combinations to get us there if we missed this train.
We waited until 9am anyway to see if there was anyone we could plead with! Lucky for us, at 9am a grumpy burly man appeared and casually started handing out visa application forms to the crowd at the window who failed to line up in any order whatsoever! We were relieved and thought our luck was in, so we happily filled in the form and queued up, making sure no one could push in front of us (as is common here).

Next Issue!! - Visa cannot be collected until 4pm tomorrow...AFTER the train has left! No matter how much we pleaded/bribed/got angry - there was no budging. Nikki and I tried our best angry/distressed mode, while Ben quite sensibly remained calm..as the one person you do not want to piss off is anyone who can give you a visa! We submitted our visa anyway and went back to debating how we could get to Ulan Bator now we would miss the Tuesday train. Nothing being simple, we also had to go to a specific bank in order to pay for the visa!

The train station was our next destination...and this is how the next hour went;
Once there we followed guide book instructions to the foreigners counter to buy tickets....it no longer existed!
Ticket window...No tickets to Ulan Bator.
Ticket office - please go to window number 4 where they speak English.
Window number 4 - please go to the directors window for tickets to Ulan Bator
Directors window (after queuing a while) - No tickets to Ulan Bator - you need to go to the International Hotel!

So, the main Beijing railway station does not sell a ticket for the Ulan Bator train that leaves from it's very own railway lines!

Search for the International hotel begins! We found an international hostel, hoping it was a Chinese translation error...No - go to the International hotel!

FINALLY we were pointed in the right direction and we found the International hotel! We explained our situation to the man behind the counter who ever so casually said....."you can go the next day" - our Hero!!! It turns out there are just two trains a week to Ulan Bator, on a Tuesday AND a Wednesday - our luck WAS in - we booked the Wednesday train there and then!!!

So in summary - a stressful morning with a happy ending!
It was a beautiful day so once the stress was over, we made the most or rare bright blue skies and sunshine and went up the top of Tiananmen gate for the view of Tiananmen square, and then at the opposite end of the forbidden city we climbed up a hill in Jinshan park for a view of the forbidden city as the sun set. A lovely ending that turned the day around!

Day Three

The last day in Beijing was spent preparing for our trip to the coldest capital in the world, apparently. Next stop Mongolia, so we had to get prepared with gloves, hats and scarves. Thankfully our Mongolian visa was ready for collection at four, and with the train tickets and passport now in hand, we felt much more secure and prepared for the journey! We'd begun to realise how little preparation we had done for this trip, but hey, it might just add to the adventure! We enjoyed a Peking duck on our final evening in Peking.

Next morning we were up early for a 07.45 train to Mongolia!


A nice relaxing few days in Beijing, with a lucky glimpse of a blue sky! Once again I enjoyed a good excuse to practice my Mandarin...particularly after a drink or two!

J x x

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Photos

Big screens in the square
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the PRC