Well I made it, one of the longest weeks I've ever worked waiting to start this trip. Having my wallet stolen a week out from leaving only added to my determination that nothing is going to stop this trip going on. All back to normal as I got on the plane to Kuala Lumpur and then Beijing.
There is nothing left in my pack now, I'm wearing it all. It snowed here last week apparently and it's still getting down to 1 deg overnight.
So far I've had two days in a city that is to say the least very busy. Older parts of the inner city are being demolished and rebuilt for the 2008 Olympics, and renovating parts of the Forbidden City. I bought a painting of a young uni student who had a gallery set up inside the South Gate and thought I had got a pretty good buy on a pretty good chinese painting. What I didn't expect was an english speaking tour guide for the rest of the day through the Forbidden City, the Imperial Gardens and The Bell tower and Drum Tower to the north of the city. "Kevin" was really good too. The people over here know their history. He was telling me which year events took place, and this is nearly 600yrs ago too.
You just got to love the walls. Walls everywhere over here. The people build a house, they don't put up a fence. They build a wall. They don't put a door on their house either, it's a gate...seriously!
Got to keep them rabbits out somehow.
The asian / chinese drivers are an amazing breed the way they weave in and out of traffic, seem to have no regard for road rules/ lines/ lights etc. I was sitting in a plane on the tarmac at Bejing, and the tarmac is nearly as busy as the road into town, and I just started hoping the "road rules" don't apply out here. China has got a fair few domestic carriers and the ones I've been on so far are as good as we've got at home. Just a lot more of them.
A chance phone conversation and I've had a flight out to Yantai (1 hour east of Beijing), a look at Orica China's detonator assembly plant, a job interview and then flew to fly to Taiyuan (1 hour south west of Beijing) to have a look at Pingshuo coal mine. Very interesting to say the least. OH&S hasn't hit China yet. At least I'm not paying for the flights and hotels, and I'll be in China for next years Olympics. A very interesting two years ahead of me now.
I've got my ticket to ride the Trans Mongolian leaving 7:30 in the morning. The first leg to Ulaan Baatar is only 30 hours. Was talking to a girl the other night who'd just got off the train from Moscow to Beijing non stop, six days of it, and she loved it. So here goes..............
