From Xi'an to Beijing

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*wipes brow* i fear the amount i have to say...

ok. after Xi'an we took a night train to Pingyao. which is this tiny (in chinese terms...) town/city between Xian and Datong. it was a bit of a last min decision, but one we certainly dont regret! it was very quaint... old style china. lots of "attractions" but we were really there for the city itself. it was full (and i mean full) of shops selling tourist tat, but it was really nice just to cycle around or walk...
the city walls were rather disappointing tho. we did attempt to walk full circuit, but they were doing repair work on the eastern part of the wall. so we were forced to turn back. and by that time they had closed all the gates. (we nearly did get stuck up there all night...) but some lovely old man opened the north gate for us and we escaped alive!!!

After Pingyao (and a very uncomfortably night on a sleeper train... the man in the bed next to me snored uncomfortably loudly ALL night. the earplugs came out.) we arrived in Datong. which has to be the worst city weve been in, in China. we checked into a hotel next to the station (no hostels...) and slept. (we got there at 5am). we did wander around the city later on, mainly because we had run out of cash - and none of the cashpoints of any of the banks near the station accepted our cards. infact one swallowed kates card... but we got it back. that forced us to venture further into town, where we finallly found cash. (it almost got to desperation point where the travellers cheques were going to be needed). we were actually really lucky in our wanderings as we didnt have a map (the CITS didnt have a free one... and you had to buy one in chinese if you wanted one at all...) we stumbled accross the nine dragon screen whilst looking for toilets, and on one of kates whims wandered down a potentially dodgy street because there were some cool buildings at the end... and came accross the temple thats suggested you visit in the LP.

(on a sub note... china is a very safe country. we havnt felt at all threatened whilst weve been here *touch wood* and everyone is so friendly and nice and willing to help if they can...)

the day after, we went to the Hanging Temple, which was... hanging... we did the CITS tour. which was actually really good. the guide was a sweetie and gave us a few interesting facts... none of which i actually remember, but it certainly enriched the experience... and went to the Yungang caves. we bumped into the Taxi Driver who had followed us for half of the previous day trying to get us to go to the hanging temple with us, whilst at the hanging temple. it was quite entertaining!
the caves were phenominal. i can barely do them justice in the short time i have to write here. they have been one of the best things ive seen ever. and kate (whos been to the pyramids) said the same. there are 45 caves, and each one has thousands of carved buddhas. theres something like 51,000 buddhas in the caves. its just breathtaking. we had two hours to wander around... which was plenty of time. i just wish i could capture the 'wow' factor on camera! but its not possible.

Now we are in Beijing. the ride from Beijing was certainly entertaining. 6hrs in a hard seat... surrounded by chinese. we played peek-a-boo with some cute kids and marvelled at the 6 people next to us who are MASTERS at gorging. they spent the whole 6 hours eating crisps, pot noodles, biscuits, snacks... kate and i were in awe. and just as we thought they had finished.... more food would miraculously appear. i dont think they actually got off the train with any luggage at all!!!

weve been to the Forbidden City (which was VAST, incredible and .... a mission to get around through all the tourists. but i think the vatican was worse) weve seen Ti'an Men Square, which was just .... a huge concrete expanse of space with a monument and a building.... 😉 im joking. kate would tell me to 'go home' if shed seen id just written that!!! it was pretty cool... the largest square in the world... but without knowing much of the history, i cant really say that i was blown away.

we were however the centre of much photography in that square. next to the monument to the peoples heroes, i think kate and i are the most photographed thing in ti'an men square. at least that day we were! it was hilarious. i dont mind when they ask politely for my photo, its when they "subtily" stalk us with cameras from 10 meters away... or edge closer and closer until we realise their intention.
we had fun... until we were actually forced to get up from the comfort of our seat in the flower bed and move to pose for a photo... it got too much and we legged it!

weve seen the temple of heaven.... which was eerie and very un temple ish... and we shopped to our hearts delights at the Pearl Market. *ahh the shopping*

today (finally i hear you say!) we went to the Summer Palace. which was beautiful. its one of my favourite places... reminds me of an stately home in england... accept it was chinese. 😉 it was really lovely just walking around, enjoying the sunny weather, the lake and the chinese architecture.

that was until a boy decided to run head first into my gut, and wind me. *niiightmare!*

but that was as we were leaving anyway.

tomorrow... the great wall! and saturday we return *snivells*

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