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Published: September 6th 2006
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getting to beijing from dalian was not too hard. in dalian i went away from biancas place at about 9 since we had figured out that there should be a bus going around 9:40. i again was a little bit hung-over and pretty tired. i w as not really in the mood fighting for a ticket ion a certain bus and figuring out where it would leave and all that stuff so i went with the next best guy who started talking me into a bus. this bus would leave at 14:30 and was supposed to arrive in beijing at 22:30 which should be quite ok. it made me feel a little bit uncomfortable that i had to pay beforehand and i also already left my large bag in the bus but as i said i felt tired so that i didn't care very much about feeling uncomfortable when i didn't have to care about this bag anymore.
i strolled around in dalian a last time and ate something before getting on the bus. it was a sleeper bus. so there were a lot of beds inside and you actually could just lie. just some poor guys who couldn't afford a
bed or came to late for a bed had to sit between the beds on buckets. never have seen something like this before. i was happy that i could sleep and so i didnt't really see something of the landscape and the few times i looked outside there actually wasn't really something to see.
when we arrived it was 2 in the morning. that pretty much sucked because i had was supposed to stay with jon, who had to work the next day. fortunately he's really a great host and so we agreed that when i would get out of the bus. i would get a taxi and call him so that he could explain the taxi driver where to go. so i finally arrived at jon's place at about 2:30 and went ro bed straight ahead.
the next day i wnt to the forbidden city and saw something of beijing for the first time. the forbidden city did not impress me very much. it's large, very large indeed, but in fact i have seen so many and beautiful temples am d buildings in the last month so that the buildings of the forbidden city just added to it. as
the lonely planet says: "i'm templed out". still it was worth a visit and after walking through it i walked back along the outer wall which was also pretty nice. in the evening i had dinner with jon in a nice muslim restaurant.
the next day i had actually planned for the great wall but then i didn't want to get up that early and so i decided to shift my plan and to go to buy a train ticket to xi'an on this day. i w ent to the main train station and after only half an hour of searching i found an office with a sign that said "ticket office for". i supposed this was the foreigners ticket office and walked in. it soon turned out that i had to buy the ticket to xi'an at the west train station. i went there by taxi. this railway station was even larger than the main station and when i arrived i wondered how long it would take me to find the foreigners ticket office there. it actually did not take me very long until i found a ticket office inside there with not very many people waiting and it
was relatively easy to get my ticket there since the clerk could speak indeed some english. that's actually kind of funny when you have seen all the crowds outside waiting in front of the "normal" ticket office. do thay all really don't know that there is this small ticket office inside? however i got my ticket and was happy to have achieved something again and went to reward nyself with lunch. afterward i just walked through a part of beijing and to the china art gallery. i realized that i like beijing, it's a huge city but it's not so awfully busy like other cities it seems. maybe it also has something to do with the fact that i'm already in china now for a month and that i get slowly adjusted to this country, at least i'm getting used to the traffic.
in the evening i went out with jon. we first went into a bar were we played pool for a while . i was very bad and lost constantly. a band started to play. they played some surf, wuite entertaining. we left after a while to another bar. after a while a chinese guy got onto the
stage and started with "as tears go by", solo with an acoustic guitar. he kept on playing some more melancholic stuff, also some nirvana songs. it was quite nice music i have to admit and jon and me started talking about music and exchanged some probably interesting bands.
on the next day i went to the great wall. it didn't start very promisin. when i got out of the metro i looked on the map to figure out how to get to the bus station. i thought it's just north-east and started walking. stupid idea! it was not that easy, though it was pretty easy in the end. after i while walking i realized that i must be wrong and had to go back. with the help of the map it was easy to find. at the bus station a long time of bargaining started. thay try to tell you the public bus goes only halfway, which is actuall partly true i think. well it's all to complicated to write down now and it also depends on to which part of the wall you want to go of course. they made offers to bring me there and back for around
300 RMB. i really was not willing to pay that much to get to the great wall and so i told them. after a while w e agreed on 100 RMB if i would wait for a while. then a french couple came and also started asking around and negotiating. i started talking with them and we agreed that we would keep on searching together. however in the end we got a ride on a minibus for 70 per person. the great wall i s for sure worth seeing and climbing it once. the scenery there is lovely and the wall is pretty impressive though i still don't understand why they built it since it never had any use.
on friday i finally went to the summer palace before getting on the train to xi'an. that was really nice. there is a big lake in front and i enjoyed it very much walking one round with many breaks while listening to nicke cave and nine inch nails. in the area of the summer palace itself it's not so nice. very touristy again and again all this temple stuff.
i afterwards had dinner with jon and then got went for the train. on the way i realized that i was quite late and took a taxi for the last part i actually had planned to walk. my platform was the very last one in the station and my waggon was also at the end o f the platform. when i finally made it to my compartement it was 5 minutes before the train would leave. so actually it was quite perfect, no waiting anywhere, although it was a little bit stressy and all the running was kind of exhausting with the bag on my shoulders.
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Linda
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Ups
Hoppala! there are still two more entries I haven't read yet... But right now I'm not able to read anymore since my head will fall down in a minute or two... Sleep well!