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The longest train ride ever..
Holy doley. I have got no idea what possessed me to catch on a train for 31 hours! It was the longest train ride ever! But before we get to that I'll bring you up to speed.
Tiananmen
Last Thu I was able to get into Tiananmen Square and get some snapshots. China has definately tried cleaning it up in preparation for the Olympics - yet locals can still hold their kids up to pee into the bins when they need to go to the look in the middle of the square?? Well I guess if an old man can go against the wall on the main road near Qianmen (the area just behind Tiananmen Sq) then I guess they can go anywhere. This is my kind of place! They also appear to have moved most of the beggars out of Tiananmen as well. In 2005 you couldn't around the square without being harassed for money or to buy something - but now it has definately settled. Unless you're stupid like me - you all know I've got the Olympic bug so when one Chinese guy asked me if I wanted to by some olympic stuff I was like "no thanks.. oh hang on, I just have a quick look". Within about ten seconds I was surrounded by 20 people with varying forms of dodgey hats, bears and keyrings. And no, I didn't buy much (honest Nadene!).
Afterwards I walked down to Qianmen behind the square. This area used to be the main entrance way into Beijing City back in the day, and is full of the Hutong lanes and shops selling anything and everything - but it is actually being renewed for the Olympics - and everything was shut down. Quite surprising. I did duck onto a back street and walk - and it's amazing that one street away from a main road you can be on a dodgey laneway wondering if you should keep walking or turn back. Its the real China.
School's out!
Finished off my last two days of classes. It is surprising how much Chinese you can learn in one week - although it seemed to remind me just how little I can speak Chinese! I think I need about another 12 years in Chibna to bring my language up to scratch. I wonder if work will pay for that.. In the end the week was well worth the heart ache, and I definately notice the increase my ability to read characters again. The week was finished off nicely with a visit to the Embassy for Friday night drinks. Interestingly I was chatting to a guy working in Beijing - he had said his wife went to Tiananmen Sq during the week and saw all the school kids having an excursion - scrubbing the ground with brushes to clean it up! Yeah! Mum can we go on an excursion again next week?
Not a bad little bar we have there. Later we ended up heading out to another fancy bar - not sure of the name though.. Apple bar or something. And lucky for us Friday night was 80's night. Yeah boyee! I wouldn't spend 5 mins at an 80's bar in Sydney - but for some reason bad 80's music seems to bring foreigners from all countries together in Beijing!
The train ride
In the end, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - but it was still the longest train ride ever. Originally I planned to get a quicker train (about 24 hrs), when I went the shop the sleeper beds were all sold out - and I'll be damned if I'm sitting in a train seat for 24 hrs. So i had to get the 31 hr train instead - I ended up buying a soft sleeper ticket just to make the ride a little smoother. The train itself was good - 4 beds to a room, the toilets were a hole in the ground - but a nice hole in the ground. Thanks to Friday night drinks I managed to sleep through most of Saturday and only had to deal with half the train ride!
In the end I probably could have flown to Chengdu - I think it would have only cost about $70 more - but I wanted to see the countryside and practice my Chinese. Some of the scenery on the train is quite good - particularly once you get away from the big cities and into the mountains. The train seemed to follow a river for half of the trip through the mountain as well so it was pretty good - but still the air has this hazey look about it. Then on the flip side you get to see how the villages live and work. Very basic. And usually close to a massive factory or chemical production plant. You can actually see the air getting denser with smog as you approach the factory areas.
A great chance to chat with Chinese from varying areas too - and they can't escape my bad Chinese either! A lot of gesturing, and full use of my dictionary - but we got there in the end! I met up with a group of 3 reporters coming to Chengdu to so a storey on a festival for the local monks, and another guy who lives just around the corner. Very friendly and helpful - I actually lost my hotel booking info and Li Wei, my new friend, was able to ring up someone and get them to check the net for the address and the ph no!
The food wasn't too bad either. I stocked up on some random snacks - but mostly discovered the ones I bought I didn't like. Fortunately they bring food around on the train, and I didn't have much choice but to try it out. It it was quite good too. ALthough breakfast was a little weird - some kind of spicy sour stuff and something that looked like porridge with peanuts? And I bought some wierd kind of beef jerky, which did in fact turn out to be beef. But i was a little concerned for a bit.
Overall a good train trip.. But by hour 25 I was ready to arrive. Considering flying to Guilin..
成都
So have now arrived in Chengdu - the home of the Giant Panda. I had visions of blue skies - but it was not to be. In fact I think it's worse than Beijing! Maybe the Govt has fixed Beijing's pollution problem a little. There seems to be less cars, and more bikes in Chengdu - but more smog. After arriving at the train station I managed to get a lift to the hotel with Michael SChumacher's brother. I'm usually pretty good in China's taxis - but this ride was something else! Zigging and zagging - we almost had 3 accidents. 3 Lanes turned into 5, then into 1, then back to 3. Left hand turns was an inspiring one lane merge into 6 and then back into 1.. Kept me on my toes!!
But now off to explore the city. Hope to load some photos soon!
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