Didn't get much sleep with the bogie changing last night. Woke up very tired to fascinating scenery and glorious sunshine. Lunched in the restaurant cabin, which is now Chinese instead of Mongolian, they changed it over on the boarder. I had scrambled eggs with tomatoes and rice. Simple but nice. Colin ordered spicy chicken and was given uncooked chunks of chicken on the bone. Definitely not the best thing to have in view of the announced SARS outbreak in Inner Mongolia yesterday. Rather hacked off he picked at a couple of cooked morsels and contented himself with his beer and cigarettes.

On arrival at the modern Beijing train station we felt a wave of nostalgia flow over us as we said goodbye to the Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Manchurian railway.

We were immediately approached by a tout who proposed a twin hotel room with ensuite loo, sink and shower for 120 yuan (£8). However, we needed to go to an ATM to get out some Yuan and we had also promised Jozie & Martin that we'd meet up with them at their hotel. Having procured our money, a phone card and eventually found a phone that worked we called the hotel in question to find out that they only had availability for 2 nights and that their prices were more or less double those which had been quoted to us on the platform. Luckily Colin had kept the business card and we hopped into a Taxi to be taken to The Zuan Hotel which is only a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square.

The location of the hotel is perfect. We are right in the thick of it all and although the room itself is very tired and the linen is rather skank it is perfectly suitable for the next few days. We spent the rest of the day checking out the surrounding area which is totally buzzing. It is THE china town of China! We also spent a few hours updating the web-site, a lengthy procedure. We ate our first Chinese meal in a local hutong. It was tasty, Colin had beef and green peppers and I had beef with vegetables and peanuts all washed down with a couple beers. It was excellent value for money and the beers are cheaper than water here only 3 yuan / 19p!  I spent the evening in bed answering e-mails off line in my thick walking socks, fleece and woolly hat. Very sexy! It is really cold at night here.

Day  13 - Friday 21st October 2005 - Colin's Account

Speeding through the countryside we are struck by the beauty of it all. After the 100's of miles of desert, there are now mountains and greenery everywhere. Orange and peach trees are visible in gardens as we go by. We get our first glimpse of the great wall running vertically up a hill, it's impressive. We arrive in Beijing at 2.30pm and are once again accosted by porters, taxi drivers and a lady offering hotel rooms ensuite for 120RMB/day. I take her card but say "we'll think about it" as we have already planned a different hotel and are also going to call the hotel where Jozie & Martin are staying. We find an ATM, initially only in Chinese, it wasn't worth even trying to guess which was the button to press for a withdrawal. Who knows I might have pressed the 'please transfer all my money to the people's republic of China' button. Luckily the next one we try is in English as well. I buy an IC telephone card but cannot find a working phone box so end up using a phone at a news kiosk which is what we should have done in the first place! Ah well, you live and learn. Jozie & Martin's hotel wanted 180RMB/night without a bathroom so we decide to try out the lady whose card I took. The taxi driver isn't sure where it is, despite it being just south of Tiananmen Square and therefore right in the centre; this confirms my belief that they haven't a clue what those squiggles they call writing actually mean. The driver had to ring the hotel to ask for directions and we eventually arrived at the right place! (cost of taxi 15RMB, about £1).

We check in and after dropping our bags immediately go out and explore. There are lots of alleyways called "Hutongs" running north/south off of our main street. Criss crossing them are smaller alleyways running east/west, it's all something to do with feng shui. The alleys are full of food stalls selling hot kebabs, noodles, yams, corn on the cob etc, etc... It's not just food though, there are also many tiny shops selling just about anything and interspersed with hairdressers, tailors and the like. We stop for a beer and a bite to eat, the beer at 3RMB for 630ml is cheaper than water. The food was spicy and tasty but quite salty. We must look up he Chinese for NO MSG.

We find an internet café and can at last update the site, we were going to have some Peking roast duck tonight, but are too full up from our late lunch so we go back to our room, reply to e-mails and watch a bit of Chinese TV. Hopefully tomorrow we will find some bikes to rent and will go and see the sites. China really doesn't appear communist, the people are friendly and everywhere we look it is bustling and dynamic. It is an exciting place full of sites, sounds and 'mainly' wonderful smells.

Day  14 - Saturday 22nd October 2005 - Sam's Account

Not sleeping too well at the moment. Very unlike me. Went to 7 Eleven supermarket to buy some yoghurts for breaky and went back to the internet café to carry on updating web-site and send e-mails.

Lunch was wonderful. A local restaurant which specialises in steamed dumplings. You can have vegetable, chicken, pork or lamb and then order a salad dish with them and either tea or beer. We went for pork dumplings and beer with some sliced cucumber with chillies for good measure. The best meal so far, it's making me hungry just thinking about it!  We then walked for miles and miles and miles today all around the centre of Beijing it was a really enjoyable day. Until ...

We rounded the day off with a couple of beers each in a local hutong and we made the mistake of not checking the prices before we ordered. Having paid 3 yuan last night per beer we knew the prices and expected much the same, but no. The restaurant owner, a very rude feisty lady, asked us to pay 60 yuan for the 4 beers! We of course said "no way" and an argument ensued. I tried to make myself understood and asked the other locals who were sitting on other tables how much we should pay. They all agreed 60 Y was ridiculous - well I assume so from the exclamations and grunts, although of course we had no idea what they were actually saying... We managed to get the price down to 30 Y and having checked with all the others in the restaurant again we were given a reluctant green light from them and we paid our bill. The owner got her ears chewed off by some of the locals as they started to have a go at her on our behalf. Anyhow, we thanked everyone in the restaurant and said our goodbye's and left. We won't be going back there!

Then we wanted something to eat. A fairly easy mission in general in view of the vast array of restaurants and options. However, it unfortunately was not to be made easy for us. We initially tried to get into a renowned Crispy Peking Duck restaurant - something on our "to do" list for Beijing. Unfortunately they were fully booked so we booked a table for the following evening and left. As we were sauntering down the road a well dressed young lady approached us and in perfect English asked if we were looking for a restaurant. Quelle surprise! We were tired so we let ourselves be led to another eatery. The prices were exorbitant and having ordered a couple of beers (yes I know another couple of beers!) Colin told them in no uncertain terms what they could do with their menu and their prices, so we left having not drank our beers. Sacrilege!

Well what to do? We were tired, irritated, hungry and starting to feel the effects of the beers. Not a good mix for a romantic evening tête à tête. I opted for another restaurant and as we walked in we both crossed our fingers that we weren't going to be, yet again, shafted. Thankfully, we weren't. Well not too much anyway.

The meal was excellent, the service outstanding and we filled our tummies to the brim having ordered too much. A hot and sour soup (which was enough to feed a family of 6), beef with green peppers and a very hot and spicy beef dish with lots of pickled chillies. Although the meal was very good value for money, they did seem to overcharge us slightly again but with the previous events of the evening I couldn't face another argument or scene so thankfully Colin agreed to just pay and we left quietly.

Back at the hotel room I watched some Chinese TV whilst Colin went out for a beer. A little bit of time apart was required after the stressful events of the evening...!

Day  14 - Saturday 22nd October 2005 - Colin's Account

First full day in Beijing. Woke up at about 8am having slept in a "sac a viande" (cotton sheet sleeping bag) as the bed linen is of somewhat dubious cleanliness. What do you expect for £8/night, 100 yards from Tiananmen Square!

Bought some yoghurts for breakfast and finished updating the site. Wandered around and then had lunch where we sat at a communal table with a Chinese family. We had some superb steamed dumplings which come in a wooden basket and you then mix 2 different soy sauce's and some chilli paste in a bowl and dip them in as you eat, really good! With some cucumber and chilli and drinks the bill was only 22RMB (£1.50).

We walked for miles through Tiananmen Square, passing around the edge of the Forbidden City and up to where we'd seen a bicycle rental place. Unfortunately it turned out to be very touristy and they wanted 20RMB per hour. At the hostel next door to us it is 20RMB per day!

Walked back some of the way and then decided on a rickshaw as our legs were getting tired. The driver (if you can call him that!) asked for 50RMB to which our reply was to walk away. He then said 40RMB and we carried on walking. Realising that we weren't easy targets, he then said 20RMB and we agreed. At the end of the journey he tried to ask for 20RMB each, Sam laughed at his gall which seemed to do the trick as he dropped his insistence right away. I have him a 5 RMB tip because he was cheeky enough to ask.

After all that walking we went for a drink and made the mistake of not asking the price beforehand, the bill for our 3 beers was 60RMB. I refused to pay and after Sam had checked with the locals and we had haggled a bit, we paid 30RMB.

Next up the restaurant we had planned to go to was full so we booked for the next day and a tout took us to a sister restaurant, however their prices were outrageous so we left our drinks, paid and moved on.

Next stop was a much better restaurant with decent prices. Sam ordered a soup which came in a tureen and was absolutely huge, but very tasty. 

Day  15 - Sunday 23rd October 2005 - Sam's Account

I am still not sleeping well and having woken early I decided to get up to date with our dirty washing. Our room and bathroom now looks like a real Chinese laundry!

We went off to Beijing West Train Station to book and pay for our train tickets to Hong Kong. Having studied the metro system last night I saw that it seemed quite easy and both Colin and me were nicely surprised to find that it really is a very easy metro system to follow.  Beijing has signposts in English as well as Chinese and there are only a few lines anyway. We've booked the hard sleeper to Hong Kong ; 1278 Yuan (£82) for both of us. The ground floor bunks were all taken so we are on bunk levels 2 & 3. The trip will take over 30 hours so let's hope it's not overly cramped. The train station was quite an amazing building in it's own right.

We then made our way back across town to another part of town, again we walked for miles and it was all in vein as the area we were wanting to visit, for the cafés and bars, had all been demolished. It was a shame, there is no where in Beijing you can actually just sit and just have a cup of coffee (other than Macdonald's which is not particularly comfortable anyway). Tired of walking we hopped into a cab to get back to our hotel. Having been around much of Beijing we can now see how lucky we were to find a hotel in the area we are in - it is without doubt the best area hands down.

The evening was spent having dumplings in our favourite restaurant and then we bought a coupe of take away beers from our local hutong to curl up and watch "The Big Blue" on our computer. The take away beers were a struggle to organise but we eventually found success in explaining what we wanted with a short game of pictionary with the boss man!

Day  15 - Sunday 23rd October 2005 - Colin's Account

Woke up early and worked on the site writing up my Mongolia diary. Bought breakfast in a local supermarket, luckily I'd kept my mini spoon that came free with yesterdays breakfast.

We braved the Metro system today, but in fact it was ridiculously easy. A ticket for  one journey anywhere on the system is 3rmb. The signs are in Chinese and English and at each stop there are lots of signs telling you what station you are at and what the next stop is. Some lines even have maps on the train that have little red lights showing the stations that flash as you approach the stop. They also pull away slowly, so if you are not holding on to something you don't go flying across the carriage. The number of lines is still quite limited at the moment and so you still have to do a fair amount of walking. We went to Beijing West train station to buy our tickets to Hong Kong. The cost for both of us was 1278RMB about £80. Which for 2700km is good value. There are 6 bunks in a hard sleeper carriage and the bottom one's had gone so we opted for the middle and the top. It's probably a good thing anyway as the bottom bunks tend to get used by everyone as a settee during the day. The trip takes about 30 hours and we leave on the 27th.

We hopped back on the Metro and went up to the Sanlitun Lu area to the north east of the centre. It is famous for it's western style bars, restaurants and clubs. It was a total disappointment as the area is being redeveloped and much of it is now rubble. Those bars that are left seemed desperate for business and all were running happy hours and trying to persuade us to come in. Even with the happy hour the prices are 3 times that of our area. We have definitely landed on our feet again as in all our walks around Beijing we have found nothing to equal the maze of alleyways that surround our hotel. We are in the 'China town' area of China! We had lunch at our dumpling place again and then walked further in to the Hutongs until the food vendors, and market stalls were gradually replaced by bike repair shops, hardware stores and men sitting around playing some local board game, possibly Majong.

For an extravagance we are eating at the QuinJude tonight, a famous roast duck restaurant only 50m from our hotel. It a huge place on 2 levels and there are pictures and the comments of some of the famous people who have eaten there on a wall by the door. The waitresses all wear long Chinese dresses and the chef brings the duck to your table and slices it in front of you. The duck was good, but not outstanding and I prefer the crispy duck in Soho. We washed it down with some 8 year old rice wine that was  marginally like Sherry, but served hot.

Day  16 - Monday 24th October 2005 - Sam's Account

A non day for me today. Having been fighting the onslaught of a cold for the last few days, today it got the better of me and I spent most of it in bed. Rats.

Day 16  - Monday 24th October 2005 - Colin's Account

I have left Sam asleep in bed and popped up to the Internet cafe to look for flights from Hong Kong to Bangkok, the cheapest ticket appears to be about US$240, but it's an airline I have never heard of. The flight time is 2.50 so not too bad, but I decide to email a couple of travel agents in Hong Kong to see what they can come up with.
Sam isn't feeling very well so I wandered around the 'Hutongs' on my own for a while, had lunch in a little cafe. I found a little shop where you can ring the UK for 3RMB/minute an tried to ring my daughter, no luck it's on answerphone.

I bought some rice wine as we had enjoyed it with our meal last night, after heating it up the sink, I tried some. Unfortunately it was horrible, so I poured it away. Went for a stroll in the direction of the temple of heaven and gardens, but it got dark before we arrived so Sam bought some chopsticks instead at a special chopsticks shop. There were hundreds of different type's in loads of colours. Some were ornamental, others engraved and bejewelled or made of metal  and displayed in their presentation boxes.

Finally managed to get hold of our friends and organised to meet up the next evening. Booked a 'secret wall' experience for tomorrow.

Day 17 - Tuesday 25th October 2005 - Sam's Account

A totally fantastic day!

We went to the great wall today. Colin had booked an organised trip for 150 yuan per person called the "secret wall experience" and it promised to take us where there were no other tourists (other than our group of course) and to visit a local family and have lunch with them. It was totally worth the money.

We left at 7.30 am from a hostel 5 minutes walk away from our hotel. The journey in our designated mini-bus was an uncomfortable two and a half hour drive and it took half of that time just to get out of Beijing; seriously.

Once in the countryside however we started to clear our lungs of the city smog and on arrival at the Chinese family's house, who were to make us lunch later that day, we were all offered a special fruit. None of us knew what it was but it was yellow/orange in colour, the size of an orange and the texture was like a cross between a tomato and an apricot. Very juicy but not a huge amount of flavour.

Then we were off. Very quickly I realised I was wearing far too many layers (thermal vest, t-shirt, cashmere roll neck jumper and a fleece over that!) so as we climbed the mountains the layers were peeled off.

The day was physically very tiring as we weren't just walking or hiking but climbing and in fact mostly clambering on all fours up and down the mountains following the wall along the ridges of each mountain peak. In many areas we were trying to scramble up dirt clinging to branches to pull ourselves up and all of us trying in vein not to slip. It was a very hairy trek and everyone was covered in dirt and grazes by the end of it. Someone even had soaking feet, socks and shoes having fallen into one of the rivers we crossed!

But soooooooooo worth it! The views were breathtaking, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, there was a good breeze blowing and I loved everyone, everything and life was great!! (it still is of course but you catch my drift)

On our return to the Chinese family's home, a couple of buckets of water had been prepared for us to clean up before our late lunch. And boy what a lunch! The food was delicious, it was the best Chinese food I have ever eaten. All the ingredients were so fresh and there was absolutely no gloopy sauce or MSG to be seen. Wonderful!

Everyone had their bowl of sticky rice and chopsticks and then the dishes just kept coming, and coming, and coming ... So many different dishes to try and all soooo good. There was a brown bean dish, celery dish, coriander & garlic dish, green bean dish, beetroot dish, peanut dish, aubergine dish, bok choy dish and lots lots more all with varying degrees of spiciness. Funnily enough we didn't realise we'd eaten a vegetarian meal until afterwards - even Colin didn't mind not having his beef fix! A few beers were bought to help the food go down and someone had an MP3 with a loud speaker so we put  some music on in the background; quite a party!

With tummies very full (we had to tell them to stop bringing out food) we adjourned to the courtyard and let our food go down chatting in the sun.

As we clambered back into the bus for our long trip back into the city we were all chatting non stop until we got back to the hostel. We said our goodbye's and went off to search for Colin's palm which we think we left in one of the restaurants. Unfortunately no luck with finding the palm, which isn't surprising really. We whizzed back to get ready for the evening - a shower was definitely required. 

We had organised to meet up with Jozie & Martin for dinner and after an initial confusion we eventually found each other. They had brought a Canadian couple they had befriended and we all tucked into some dumplings and beer whilst catching up on each others news since we'd last seen them in Russia.

We had a great evening and got disgustingly drunk!   

Day 17 - Tuesday 25th October 2005 - Colin's Account

Up and ready to go by 7am for our trip to the Great Wall and walked to Leo Hostel 2, which is several hundred yards away. As we were a few minutes early we had a cup of tea, our 1st 'normal' cup of tea for ages, wonderful!

We are on a minibus with 8 other people, 3 Aussies, 4 Brits and one Israeli. The drive to the 'secret  wall' is about 2.5 hours, but the vast majority of the journey is taken up with escaping Beijing. I don't mean that the traffic was bad, although it was. It is just that it sprawls on and on for mile after mile. Our trip, which includes lunch, is to a part of the wall with no hawkers, no tourists and  no shops. In fact nothing except the original wall, obviously in bad condition, but brilliant for that very reason.

Our guide leads us on an incredible journey up and down hills and small trails. We reach the wall and climb up on to the centre. From there we walk along the top of the wall which is overgrown with bushes, trees and fallen masonry making it far from a casual stroll. We climb up almost vertical parts of the wall and reach a watchtower in surpassingly good condition, perched on top of a mountain. The views were magnificent, with forests, lakes and other sections of the wall stretching off into the distance.

We returned via a stream with lots of rock pools and we had to constantly cross backwards and forwards via stepping stones, one of the Brits slipped and fell in. At one point slightly up the hillside there was a mountain stream gushing out of a rock. The water tasted lovely and so I filled up our water bottle and ended up having to pass it round as no one else had been prepared to brave the climb to the source.

Sam slipped and grazed her arm, because being a good Samaritan she had stopped to help someone with their rucksack and without a handhold, promptly lost her grip.

Lunch was a real feast, the dishes kept coming and included, coriander with garlic, butter beans, aubergines, red cabbage, small roasted nuts of some type, pork with red & green peppers, mushrooms and tofu. Most had sauces ranging from mild to very spicy.

We arrived home at about 5pm and having realised that morning that I had mislaid my Palm Tungsten T5 computer, we went back to the 3 possible restaurants we could have left it at. No luck, although one of the waiters looked very sheepish when asked about it. Damn & double damn, I've lost my Palm!!!

Later on we waited outside the restaurant where we had agreed to meet Jozie & Martin, but gave up at 7.30 and went off to eat in our dumpling restaurant. We sat near the door so they would see us if they walked past and suddenly they were there with 2 Canadians in tow who are on their honeymoon. After more dumplings and beer we adjourned to my 'local' cafe for more beers and a good chat. The Canadians left early as they has a flight at 5.30 the next morning, but I think they were struggling to keep up with the pace anyway.

The public toilets in the Hutong around the corner from the cafe are the foulest I have ever seen, there are half a dozen communal holes in the ground..... and well I won't elaborate further. After copious beers we swayed home, after agreeing to meet the others again tomorrow. Luckily the night porter unchained the front door for us and we fell asleep with memories of a wonderful day.

Day 18 - Wednesday 26th October 2005 - Sam's Account  

Oh my god my head is killing me! I woke up with the most horrendous hangover and felt absolutely awful. In addition to the hangover my cold is now really bad and I can stop sneezing and needing to blow my nose. China is not a good place to catch a cold as they don't like nose blowing into tissues, you are supposed to snot onto the floor in one quick mastered deftly attacked movement. I don't care what they expect, there is no way I am going to start snotting on the floor! So I endeavour to keep my nose blowing as discreet as possible for the day, not an easy task.

We popped into the internet café again this morning and then went for a big greasy burger and chips from Macdonald's with a large coke to help the hangover - wonderful!

For our last day in Beijing we had decided to visit the Forbidden City. I really wasn't feeling up to it but realised that if I didn't do the visit I'd only want to stay in bed all day feeling sorry for my self inflicted pain. So we went for it.

The City is very impressive mainly due to the sheer size of the area. It is quite easy to imagine how the city would have looked 6 centuries ago as all the building are in good condition. The best parts of the visit for me were the theatre and the gardens.

The theatre has 3 floors and each floor staged a different play simultaneously, if required by the Emperor depending on the number of people being entertained. The mechanics and engineering that went into the construction of the theatre is very impressive; numerous trap doors and pulley's to allow actors to apparate, fly through the air, vanish and make grand entrances. It really was the best theatre I've ever seen, plus of course the vibrant colours and typical Chinese architecture set it off to a T.

The gardens were quite little, considering the sheer size the whole Forbidden City, but in their time I can imagine they were beautiful. Little pathways wandering off in a meandering circuit around one of the gardens. Another was very geometric in it's design and reminded me of French gardens. I personally prefer the more rambling ones where you discover something new around every corner.

The buildings have a small amount of furniture on display in them, it would be a much richer experience if they actually decorated the whole city as it would have been all those century's ago, they could even put on plays in the old theatre - it would be magical if they did bring the whole place back to life...

After our tour of the Forbidden City we wandered back to the hotel for a rest. My hangover was getting slightly better but my cold wasn't so a hot cup of tea went down a treat.

Day 18 - Wednesday 26th October 2005 - Colin's Account

Woke up feeling a bit rough, but Sam felt absolutely awful. I went off to upload our pictures of Mongolia to the site and after joining me some time later she suggested McDonalds for lunch. I'm ashamed to admit that I agreed and one Big Mac & fries later we were on our way past Tianamen Sq to the forbidden city.

The entry cost was 60RMB each plus one audio guide at 40RMB. The buildings are quite amazing and one of them is the largest wooden building in China. Despite it all being 600+ years old, there is a Starbucks coffee house, oh no. At least it's housed in a traditional wooden building.

Our tickets allow us into all bar two of the museums/halls. The two that are extra are the hall of jewellery and the hall of clocks and watches. Sam was keen on the jewellery so we paid the extra 10RMB and went for a look. While the exhibits were interesting, the best bits were all the other gardens and buildings you could access once you'd paid the extra. Parts of the paving were still original although time had quite severely weathered them so they were quite uneven.

One of the buildings was the old theatre on 3 floors with the possibility of a different play on each floor. Trapdoors in the floors and ceilings allowed for some spectacular entrances from the players.

Both tired, we headed back to the hotel where I dictated some of my journal to Sam to put on to the computer, she types faster than me, especially on my French Keyboard.

Meeting up with Jozie & Martin, I suggested the Liqun Roast Duck restaurant. You have to reserve, but I managed to bluff our way in. It is a tiny place hidden down a hutong in the middle of nowhere. The food was really excellent, apart from the duck we had, beef with peppers and some broccoli with garlic. Some rice wine, jasmine tea and beer completed the meal. At 240RMB for the four of us, it was more expensive than our usual fayre, but still ridiculously cheap by western standards. Said good bye to our friends, but hope to meet up for an evening in Bangkok in a couple of weeks. Tried to ring my daughters again, at one of the little kiosks dotted all over the hutongs. The price is not bad at 3RMB per minute, but unfortunately an answering machine again!

Day 19 - Thursday 27th October 2005 - Sam's Account

I feel terrible. Really awful and it took some muster to get washed, dressed, packed and my rucksack on. Luckily we managed to get a taxi straight away and we sped off to the train station to get our "hard sleeper" train to Hong Kong.

My conclusion and general opinion of Beijing is rather mixed.

Beijing is apparently not very representative of the rest of China. I will have to reserve judgement of this until we return (we have a double entry visa). My impression of Beijing is that it has the energy and desire to better itself. The people are willing, hard working, dynamic and tenacious. The food is excellent and more varied than I had imagined. Value for money is good; especially the beer! However, it is noisy, polluted and very dirty in certain areas. "All capital cities are" I hear you cry! Well yes, but I have to say that Beijing does take these factors to the nth degree. General hygiene is definitely not a strong point for most of Beijing. This is mainly due to the constant spitting (well flobbing really) in the streets and on the floor of some cheaper restaurants.

The city is vast, sprawling for miles upon miles and although their metro system is good it is in need of expansion.

I really am interested as to how they are going to cope with the Olympics in 2008, many changes will need to be made (which I'm sure are planned) but in addition to the public transport system Beijing will have to clean itself up. I personally would start on the following :
1) ban spitting / flobbing in public places - especially indoors.
2) ban aggressive begging
3) put mutilated/dismembered/disabled/sick beggars in hospital
4) get rid of the disgustingly filthy communal public toilets which are basically pits.
5) Extend the metro system and increase the number of lines and stops

Good luck to Beijing for 2008, although the Chinese don't really need the luck as they can do absolutely anything they put their minds to. Even running the world ...

Day 19 - Thursday 27th October 2005 - Colin's Account

Today we are taking the train to Hong Kong, Sam is still feeling a bit ill so I nipped up to the internet cafe to check if we had had a reply to our enquiry about flights to Bangkok. We had and it looks like being about 1400 HK$ (about £100) each.

It rained last night so there are numerous little and some not so little puddles dotted around. We immediately hailed a passing cab and 20 minutes and 24RMB later arrived at Beijing West train station, where all trains to Hong Kong leave from. We took off all of our heavy gear to be scanned and went into the station, only to be find that we had to go next door to international departures, despite Hong Kong now being part of China. So we had to get the bags scanned again at their security. After putting them back on we literally walked 10metres round a corner to find we had to take them off again for yet another scan. This time one of the customs officials came over to apologise and explain that they have to scan them separately for customs and security as their technology isn't up to the job.

I had expected to go through passport control in Hong Kong, but we had to complete all the formalities in Beijing including departure cards. We don't need a visa to enter Hong Kong and having been 'stamped' as having departed China, we are in 'no-mans' land on the train.

The train is neat and tidy and more modern than the Trans-Siberian, but we are not going first class this time. Our cabin has six bunks, 3 on each side and I'm on the top one with Sam in the middle. I have very little head room, but our bags are stashed at my level which is useful.
Despite being called a hard sleeper the beds are fairly soft and are colour co-ordinated green and white. We have a bin, a small table and 2 urns or hot water for jasmine tea or making instant noodles. There is no electric socket and no light switch, so I assume at some point it will be lights out, which will remind me of being back in the dorm at school. The restaurant car is about 6 carriages away and the food is copious and only a bit of a rip off. Sam chose pork with garlic stems, fortunately they are very mild or she may have been consigned to the corridor to sleep.

The China section of this journal now moves to the Hong Kong link, although we will be back in China in a few months as we have double entry visa's.