Train Ride 1: Beijing to Xi'an

On the evening of our 4th day we hopped on a train and left Beijing. Our destination - Xi'an. Xi'an is about 14 hours south west from Beijing by train. It is the captial of Shaanxi Province and is a culturally rich city. On the train we had hard sleeper berths. THat means there were six bunks in each berth. The bunks were stacked three high and our group had two berths in total. The bunks were pretty small- about 175cm long (just about my height) and half a meter wide. We could only sity right up without hitting our heads on the bottom bunk so those people sleeping in the middle or top bunks had to hang out on the bottom until they went to bed. I was on the bottom. I was pretty impressed with the train. It was clean and had people who were constantly walking up and down the train collecting the garbage from our garbage bin and refilling our hot water container. The toilets were squat toilets and I was lucky to have had experience with squat toilets on trains in Japan because some of the people I was travelling with had difficulties adjusting to squating in general, nevermind squating on a shaky, moving train.

Train travel is quite social and I really enjoyed it. We all hung out, chit chatted and shared our picnic dinners and breakfasts. Good times!

Unfortunately we didn't sleep very well because throughout the night the train stopped at other stations and people would get on and walk by our beds. As they did this they would bump into our feet that were hanging off the ends of our beds and some people who couldn't read the berth numbers in the dark actually tried to get in our beds with us in them. Argh!

Poor Vivian didn't even get a bed to sleep in as there was a mistake made with the reservation. She only had standing room for half the trip and finally a seat for the final leg.

After 14 hours we arrived in Xi'an ready to continue our China adventure!

Day 4- Forbidden City

We spent our last day in Beijing on a walking tour through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We headed out from the hotel at around 9am and made our way to Tiananmen Square. The square is huge and located in the center of Beijing. It is the traditional site of festival and rallies and demonstrations. It can hold about 1million people at once. In the middle there is a Museum and the building that houses the dead body of the former Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. His body was embalmed when he died and is kept in a glass case in the Museum. It goes on display for about 3 hours a day, two days a week. Today just happened to be one of the days his body was on exhibition. We didn't see it but we saw the line of people waiting to go in to the museum. It was at least the length of a football field and about 4 people wide. Incredible!

We walked through the Square and through the Palace Gate and into the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is a walled complex of buildings at the north end of Tiananmen Square that was the former site of the Imperial Palace (1421-1911). It is now called the Palace Museum. We walked around the Forbidden and saw the outside of the different Palace buildings. They too (like the Summer Palace) have very unique English names and each building served a very specific purpose. The sheer size of the Forbidden City was amazing. I can imagine that if the Emperor wanted to meet a friend for lunch on the opposite side of the city it would take almost an hour just to walk across the palace grounds..hehe. LIke the rest of Beijing, the Palace Museum too is being restored so some of the beauty was masked by scaffolding. The most shocking thing of the tour was that there was a Starbucks in the middle of the grounds! Yes...I'm not lying! We didn't believe Vivian (our tour guide) when she told us but I saw it with my own eyes. It's disgusting really, can't anything just be sacred and free of commercial chains? That being said, we did stop for a coffee. (i know i know..its just not right). In our defence coffee is really hard to come by in China.

After the Forbidden City we had a couple of hours free time so Logan and I went to the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is one of the most beautiful and best known temples in Beijing. It's located in the southern part of Beijing in Tian Tian park. It is where the Emperors used to go to worship. The park was so inviting and made me want to grab a spot of grass and picnic. But we couldn't actually walk on the grass. After a long morning in the crazy heat we kind of sped through the park grounds and made our way back to the hotel.

Today I also went to Grocery Store Heaven! Yes, that's right! In an upscale mall close to the hotel there was a new grocery store that just went on forever. It was the closest thing to a Canadian grocery store that I have seen in Asia. It had goods and brands from Europe, Asia and North America. We stopped int here to pick up some things for the train ride to Xi'an. Yum!

Day 3- The Great Wall

Today our group met at 9am to bus it 2 hours to the Mutanyiax (not sure of the spelling right now) area of The Great Wall. It is a less crowed place to get a glimpse of the Chinese beast of a wall. When we got there I didn't really know what to expect because from the base of the mountains I couldn't really see the wall and it just looked like a hike up a big hill. So we walked our way through a few stalls of locals trying to sell us goods and started our trek up. It was about a 30 minute walk up the mountain to our first section of wall. WOW! I can't even describe how amazing I felt standing on the wall. Until the last year I don't remember a time where I ever thought that I would be stand on the Great Wall of China. Our view was a little stunted because of the fog but it was still beautiful. We walked along it for almost an hour and could have kept going forever. There are towers (turrets) spread out along the wall, so we would walk up the stairs then rest in the tower and enjoy the breeze. Often in the towers we would see other tourists or locals and chit chat then be on our way again. The view from off the wall was just miles of mountains and little towns off in the distance.

In total I was on the wall for about 2 hours then I opted to take the cable car down while others went down on a giant slide. Overall it was a pretty cool experience.

Day 2- Summer Palace and Peking Duck

Today Logan and I headed to the Summer Palace. It is about 40 minutes outside of Beijing. We shared a taxi with the two Swiss girls that were sharing out hostel room. The taxi was only $8 Canadian! The palace was beautiful with a lake in the center- easily could have spent an entire day there. The temples of the Palace had wonderful names such as Temple of Clouds in the sky. (ok i made that one up but you get the point). On the way back from the Summer Palace it was just Logan and I in the taxi, naturally I slept, but Logan informed me that the taxi also took the time to nap while we were on the highway. He kept nodding off then waking up and slapping his face to try and stay awake. Have I mentioned before that drivers here are nuts??

After the Summer Palace we checked out of Far East International Youth HOstel and checked into the Intrepid tour at a hotel nearby. Before we met the group for orientation we had a brief run in with some crazy clothing shop girl who actually chased me down the hallway shouting at me to by her clothes. She clutched onto my arm too and wouldn't let go! But I guess it worked cause I bought a fake North Face rain coat from her shop.

The Intrepid group is pretty cool. Our tour guide is a local Chinese girl from Xi'an (stop 2 on our trip). Her English name is Vivian. For din din she took us to a local restaurant for Peking Duck. It was my first time really eating duck and it was soo tastey. The duck is cooked a special way then sliced into a specific amount of bit size pieces. We then roll it in a thin flour tortilla and eat it with cucumber and this brown sauce. It was a great introduction to the trip!!

That covers it for day 2! I'm about five days behind in my writing cause internet access is limited (am sharing with lots of people....people are lining up behind me) hehe

thanks for your comments I look forward to reading them!!

Day 1- Beijing

Today was the first full day in Beijing. We spent it walking around and getting acquainted with the city. It is shocking the different standards of living between the haves andthe have-nots. We walked through Tiananmen Square and saw the outside ofthe Forbidden city- very neat and huge! Lunch was tastey andcheap Chinese food! We had way too much food and only paid 10$. Have I told you howmuch I love Chinesefood??

We saw the Lama Temple, a huge Tibetan Temple andn the drum tower. We also discovered the famous back alleyways of Beijing from the seat of a rickshaw. I

The weather is hot but because of the smog it's not too sunny, which is nice. There is a ton of construction because ofthe upcoming 2008 Olympics so many of the sites are under construction and no matter what direction you look you see scaffolding. But I must say that the city is a lot cleaner then I expected.I haven't seen any garbage on the ground at all. very pleasant!

Thats all for now!
Stay tuned...

We Arrived!

We arrived safe and sound to Beijing! I was shocked about the amount of smog I saw just covering the city .like blanket as the plane landed. We were greeted by a tall Chinese man holding a sign with my name on it to take us to our hostel- fun!! China is not as overwhelming as I expected. Understanding some Japanese characters helps because they are the similar in China (although pronounced differently). don't have alot of internet access but will write when I can!

The Journey begins...

It is 8am Saturday morning and I am anxiously awaiting my flight to China. In true Nicole fashion I didn't start packing until almost midnight last night and didn't finish until 3am. But I must say in the last two years I have come miles in the art of packing light. Nicki- you would be proud!!

This trip is a little different as I will be joining a tour. The travel company is called Intrepid Travel and I have heard all good things about them! I am taking the tour called A Taste of China! http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trip.php

That's all for now! It's time to head to the train station!! China- Here I Come!!