Beijing

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I think blogging is bad luck, just after I blogged the last time I broke the key in the lock of the hotel room, half an hour and a set of pliers later we managed to get back in.

Quick update...we left Ulaanbaatar in the morning which meant we had a full day of scenery to look forward to. The hills of the city slowly levelled out and the Gobi desert formed infront of our eyes. It wasn't pure sand as you would expect, there was some vegetation growing on it, but it was endless almost flat dry landscape.

We arrived to the Chinese border to a lovely fanfare over the loud speakers. They were very efficient and immediatley started with passport control, customs and changing the bogeys. We wereen't allowed off the train as it was late (9pm) so we stayed on and watched the carrigages being separated in a hanger and each one lifted off the track to have the old wheels removed and the new ones added (Chinese railways have a different gague).

When we woke the next morning we woke to different scenery. Feilds of sweetcorn being grown, little villages and donkeys working the fields with mountains in the background. We even caught a glimpse of the great wall at one point!

When we arrived in Beiging we had to make our way to the exit to meet the guide. It was the start of the national holiday so every man and his dog were at the station, and with a population of 30 million in the city thats a lot of people! It was an absolute jam at the exit, people almost being crushed trying to get into the station to make their way out of the city as we tried to push our way out to the pavement. Anyway we found the guide and the bus took us to the hotel which was pretty nice to say the least. I had a lazy rest of the day.

That night we went out as a group for dinner as it was our last night. We walked into the city center and after some long queueing (national holiday) we found a little restaurant who would accommodate all 13 of us....well they almost threw out the locals to accommodate us. The menue was in chinglish...I passed on the Saliva Chicken (what on earth was that supposed to be???) and had amazing pork with pineapple. They have no idea about portion size here, when you order fried rice you get a bucket of rice...no joke.

So the next day I went to TheTemple of Heaven. A park where the emperors would go and pray for good harvests. It was lovley. Beautiful round temples with detailed enameled tiles, spotless gardens and children playing with streamers and kites.

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