After catching the red-eye straight to Beijing, we arrived at an ultra modern airport where we were picked up by a lookalike of the 'good old guy' out of Big Trouble in Little China. Our first impressions of China were that it was chaotic! The one golden rule when you are driving or crossing the road is.... there are no rules. After meeting our tour-guide Bruce, we went out that same evening for dinner with the rest of the group (mainly Aussies - all very fun, alcoholic and friendly) where we sampled the local speciality - peking duck (we definitely prefer the even less greasy version in London).
The next morning we took a 2 hour bus ride to Mutianyu where we conquered the Great Wall of China. After ascending about 200ft we walked along the section for about 5km (through the Ming Dynasty Guard Towers) before we tobogganed our way back down.We were met by heavy showers and thunderstorms the following day, but armed with our waterproofs, we ventured to the Forbidden City (so called because all common people were forbidden to enter - it was the grounds where the emperor, his family and his many concubin
es lived - lucky guy!). That evening we boarded an overnight hard sleeper train to Xian (not recommended for claustrophobics - 6 bunk beds to a cabin - 3 on top of each other). Using the squat toilet on the train was definitely an experience. You can imagine how filthy it became with 50 people sharing the same one! We passed the night playing cards (Bruce taught us a very cool card game called 'Digging the Hole')...playing drinking games and chatting.
2 comments:
The looks very similar to ordinary Russian train. Seems Chinese stole the concept as always. :)
I spent all my student body travelling in such trains. I was nice .:)
Andrey
Hola guapos, que envidia nos estais dando, pero nos alegramos mucho, poner mas fotos , vale? un besazo Ruth y Javi
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