Hong Kong to Beijing

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hi.

Internet cafes are not as easy to locate in China as we had anticipated so blog entries will be a few weeks behind our actual travels.

This entry concerns our trip by train from Hong Kong to Beijing. What follows are a couple of hints for anybody following in our footsteps.

(1) Remember your carriage, room and bunk numbers. Your ticket will be taken off you on boarding the train and will not show these minor details which you are assumed to know already.

(2) You will be handed a quarentine card to fill out ten minutes after leaving station. It will ask if you have organic products with you. Do not eat all your sandwiches. You have 24 hours of travel ahead of you at the end of which the cards are presented to Chinese customs. Who will ignore them.

(3) Do you like cantonese pop. Think of Ronan Keating and Boyzone in a foreign language. Do you want 24 hours of piped cantonese pop. No. Look under your table where you will find a cleverly concealed volume button. Sharing carriage with Cantonese pop fans. Bring headphones.

(4) Bring warm clothes. Air conditioning is a relief from humid hong Kong weather. Initially. Within a few hours you will be shivering. Going to bed fully clothed at 7 in the evening is only exciting when you are a child.

(5) Take a photograph of the countryside shortly after leaving station. Now put camera away. Scenery will not change for next 24 hours.

(6) Warning sign on toilet forbidding use whilst stationary in station. Train that is. Toilet empties out unto track. Obey sign.

(7) Do not take short cuts across Chinese railway tracks.

No photographs this time as PC has no USB port. Signing off from Shanghai.

Brendan and Linda.

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