Talk about luxury! Soft sleepers are pricey but what a wonderful way to sleep through the night and arrive in Beijing the next day!
It's a different world from Shanghai. So much more space, greenery and chilled-out-ness. Unlike Shanghai I no longer feel as if I will die every single time I cross the road.
Spent a pretty uneventful first day wandering and wandering and getting lost on the way to Tiananmen Square. By the time I got to the Forbidden City the last tickets had been sold so that would have to wait until another day. Tiananmen Square is a vast expanse of grey austerity dotted with all kinds of Mao memorabilia and a Mao mausoleum plonked in the centre. A generally grey and uninspiring day was changed in to a wonderful experience when that evening I got myself lost in the charming Hutong-esque backstreets around the World Trade Centre, bought some "bing" (bread) and was invited to sit down and "chat" with the locals. We managed very basic communication by way of writing Kanji on a piece of paper, until I managed to tell her I could speak Japanese. At this the old lady disappeared and fetched her Japanese-speaking daughter, and we spent a fantastic evening drinking beer and eating watermelon! My second very rewarding chance encounter of my trip so far! People here are so damn friendly!
