Foreign places Famous Faces All that digging in the sand at the beach when i was a little girl paid off and i finally reached China.

ALL ABOARD THE SUZHOU TO BEIJING EXPRESS Well its express if you call it 10 hours on a train over night. 7pm to 7am. It was exciting, We travelled via train in soft sleeper carriage. Soft sleeper is a cabin with two bunks – top & bottom on either side of the compartment. We both had top bunk and there was a Chinese lady on the bottom one. Funny that – a Chinese woman in China ! (my attempt at humour – you can laugh now). We had a chat with her and learnt she was travelling to Beijing for business. This was our first long distance train trip. Cost about 450 yuan each which is something that many Chinese can not afford so it was a bit of luxury (not compared to first class flying though – and we didn’t do any of that either). It was all very exciting at the start. What to do ? Peer out the doorway into the hallway and see what other passengers were doing, or wait to use the toilet and see just how stinky it is, or go to sleep and hope to stay asleep til you arrive, or read the book you brought, or listen to your ipod, or wait for the dinner lady to arrive with some treats. By the time we had settled in to our new train compartment, it was time for lights out. Might as well get some rest. As it was the first long distance for both of us, I don’t think either of us slept well at all. As we had heard about theft on trains, we kept a close eye on our stuff. There was no problem for us. Arriving in Beijing Train station we were a little tired from the disrupted sleep and were greeted by masses of taxi’s. We had to wait in a huge line for a taxi – yes there was actually a line ! Obviously they are trying to practice line etiquette for the Beijing Olympics. We still had to glare at people who were trying to push in and point to the end of the line. We had not booked ahead for anything at all on this trip, so we were winging it all the way. That was going to make it interesting when we turned up at a hotel unannounced. The first hotel was our dream hotel – The Peninsula Palace. After asking the price for the night realised this hotel really was in our dreams. It did have a Chanel shop in the foyer after all. Next we tried Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza. But they told us they didn’t have any rooms available. I thought this was a little suspicious. So we had breakfast at their buffet and I made the call to them from my mobile phone. They were happy to make a booking for us over the phone. This was something that we cottoned on to quite early. So we knew we had to make the phone call, even if it was from the hotel lobby. But for whatever reason it was, hotels didn’t not like walk ins. Who would turn up at a hotel expecting a room anyway ? We did. After calling around a few places we decided upon Qianmen Jinguo Hotel. Good location downtown, not too far from Tiananmen Square. Recovery Sleeps – this are must haves, after 10 hour train journeys. Followed by Peking duck dinner at Asia’s Biggest Duck Restaurant – Five floors of restaurant. Delicious duck beyond description. Not realising how close to Tiananmen Square we were, we hopped in a taxi bike each. This was fun. The taxi driver had said 3 yuan, but when we stopped they said 30 yuan. We paid them the 3 yuan and left them. Sneaky ! This is where we were hit by our next sneaky traders waiting to prey upon the unsuspecting foreigners. Kites were for sale everywhere along with other touristy items. The first kite we bought, a dragonfly one, we knew we had been taken for a ride but we weren’t sure how. Then we realised they had given us the kite, but not the long string and handle that gets the kites flying as high as they do. We watched the street sellers promoting their kties by flying them higher and higher in the sky. We also noticed that to get the really long ones, you had to pay more. We had made the mistake of buying the smallest one. I had lots of fun running around trying to get this small kite high up in the air and keeping it there. The kites at Tiananmen Square were such a delight at night and I am so glad that I took the time to stop and fly one. Corey, bought an big kick ass kite to take back home. Had a look at the big picture of Mao that the square is famous for. Pretty impressive sight. Our main objective in Beijing was to book tickets for the train trip to Mongolia but first we had to see if we could obtain visas. This was an interesting experience. Firstly the Mongolian Embassy was shut so we had to wait til it opened on Monday. We decided our only goal for Saturday would be to see the Forbidden City. It was huge. Corey and I both went on a Snapathon and took loads and loads of photos. Huge actually is an understatement of a description. I guess its not a called a "city" for nothing. The Forbidden Cityt is where the Emperors and Empresses lived. Before we arrived, Corey was ripped off by a preying watch merchant who had been watching us get money out from the atm. He thougth he got a great deal - 4 watches for 100 yuan. But on closer inspection, the watches were very plastic looking. Replica man strikes again ! Lazy Sunday - We had an early start with a hotel buffet brekkie. Not as good as we have had before. But if we didn't get up for it, we would miss out and breakfast was included so it seemed a pity not to go. Brekkie was followed by a long sleep in til midday. ah ! The snooze tour of China continues. In the afternoon we decided to go to Panjiayuan Market. The cab driver gave us a bum steer to an expensive antique market in a multi-storey building and not the market we were looking for. After asking a security guard, then a fruit seller if we were going the right way (not in China but by pointing to the map), we finally found it. Panjiayuan was awesome. Its pretty big and we didn't get to see absolutely everything, but we covered some good ground. We got osme bargains and some not so good bargains, but overall shopped pretty well. Alot of the stuff there looked old and antiquey but it could well have been brand new. There was a whole street of "stall holders" with bits and pieces of stuff sprawled out on the ground for all to see. We made a good shopping team, and maybe we could further improve our tag team technique and get further bargains. One of us would find something we liked, then the other would come up and say how much do they want, then the other person would comment on how expensive it was and say the lowest price possible. this worked well because when I really wanted something but knew they were trying to rip me off, Corey would come along and make them reduce the price, otherwise we would walk away. I purchased : a small pink journal that is covered in a chinese material a love heart jewellery box that is ceramic and has an unusual silver trim with dragons on it and 2 pairs of chinese slippers. Corey had purchased a whole heap of stuff, from a big vase with Mao all over it, to some little dragon nick nacks. Obtaining the visas for Mongolia: Beijing is of course massive, and you might think you are just one street away, but that street can be deceptively large. We went to the area where all the embassies are. It was stinking hot - it was mid Summer after all. We sweated like nobody's business. And to top that off, we had to walk around the whole outside of the embassy compound before we finally reached the Mongolian embassy. We of course needed to find a bank too as it was going to be a hefty payment to rush a visa through. We wanted to get one asap so we could start our journey. I guess we were a little anxious about it all because we had spent so much time in Shanghai that we didn't want to miss out on Mongolia. There was a huge line at the embassy which was only small. We waited in line....some of us weren't so patient and were taking their frustrations out on me and the chinese. There was another aussie in line who apparently was a tour guide and was there to organise visas for his group. Once the paper work was completed, they sent us over to the Bank of China to make a payment for the visa. We had to pay 495 yuan each as we had asked for the visa to be processed express. Now that we knew the visa would get through, we had to get the tickets to Mongolia. Oh, the pain of the process. Well it wasn't too bad. We went to the International Hotel which had a CITS office. CITS stands for China International Travel Service. We found them unhelpful but that could have been tainted by the pure frustration of understanding processes or getting anything done in this country. We couldn't get a train ticket to Mongolia til next TUESDAY. And even then, we couldn't get a return ticket. We asked them how we would get back to Beijing. They said that the only thing we could do is to book a ticket in Ulan Bator when we get there. We were catching the Trans-Mongolian railway from Beijing to Mongolia via first class cabin. It cost us 1000 yuan each and as you know, that was for a one way ticket. We had decided that in the mean time we would take a detour to Xi'an. we wanted to go there anyway and it didn't matter in what order we saw things. Lucky we were flexible with our itinerary. Getting the train ticket to Xi'an was more of an ordeal. No one would serve us. We went to the Foreign Speaking Counter but they said we had to go to Counter One. We went to Counter one, then they said we had to go to the Foreign Speaking Counter. It didn't help that there was a woman behind the Foreign Speaking Counter who just wanted to go for her dinner break. There was alot of confusion and it simply is not worth explaining the whole ordeal except to say that a very kind chinese man who could also speak english tried to help us. Although the main problem was that she refused to give us a ticket on a train to Xi'an that had a sleeper carriage. she told us that there was no sleeper carriage. We knew this wasn't true but thought maybe she just meant that it was fully booked. So we asked her for a different date, and she still said no. She said that all the seats on the train and sitting seats not sleeping seats. Ok so we decided that was just what we had to do. when we caught the train, we found out that they did have sleeping carriages but it was all too late by then. We had a massive argument at the train station because of the stupid chinese woman who wouldn't listen.. The ticket she gave us was still two days away. It gave us time to actually see some more of the sights in Beijing and relax a little. The next day we had another late sleep in. All this travelling and making plans on the go is exhausting. We decided to check out of the hotel that we dubbed as the "Itchy Scratchy Hotel with Hard pillows". We checked into the Gloria Plaza Hotel. We opted for the Gloria Plaza Hotel. This was a pretty nice, comfortable 4 star hotel. They even upgraded us to the Executive Suite. Not sure why, but it was exciting to know we got special benefits. Guess we haven’t done much executive style travel. We had access to the executive lounge on the 15th floor , and received two complimentary drinks of our choice per day. If we wanted, we could have breakfast there too. It was definately time to chill in the hotel. They had a Cantonese restaurant - so we had a realllllly long dinner. We had some of the most delicious prawn dishes. MMmmmmm, with lots of good wine of course. The Great Wall of China was the next destination. Corey had met a guy at the Forbidden City who had a "car" to take us. It was his turn to organise it. They said we would be picked up by an Audi, instead we had a shitty VW. We had a driver and a tour guide. They were pretty helpful as we needed to pick up our visas from the Mongolian embassy so we just told them where to go and they took us. The problem with this whole scenario is that i knew we would be held captive and taken to places we didn't want to go. We had been warned off this in the Lonely Planet. Mainly that you get taken to the Jade and Silk factories but its merely just to rip the foreigners off and make them pay high prices. As it turned out, they did take us to a Jade factory. It wasn't the real factory, More like a huge shop with a small line up of machines that show you the process of carving the jade and how they make what they do out of it. It was interesting - but we knew that it wasn't a real factory. Inside a sales woman who spoke english tried to explain the history of jade. we were impatient as we really didn't want to be there. Then we were taken in to where they have masses of jade - everything from bracelets to huge carvings. New sales tactic was to let me try a jade bracelet on. Next thing i knew i had 4 jade bracelets on and i couldn't get them off my hand. There is a special way to give you the right size jade bracelet. If you make a fist with your hand, then the bracelet should fit over only 3 knuckles. That size bracelet is very small and you can't put the bracelet on without using hand cream or in their case, a plastic bag which helps slide it on and off. They were wanting something like 3000 yuan for one bracelet. Of course, i decided there was no way i would pay that. I did desperately want the jade bracelet. We tried to bargain but their lowest price was 1500 yuan. Still too high in my eyes. We didn't buy a thing, and our tour guide didn't look too happy. she obviously wasn't getting any commission for this trip. Next on the list was lunch. We stopped at a restaurant that we ended up paying 200 yuan. Big tourist trap. Nice food and we were kind of glad because it was raining outside so it gave the rain time to stop. We noticed another "jade factory" across the road and invesigated. We knew what the other factory's prices were so it was time to drive a hard bargain. We told them that we wanted two bracelets but were only prepared to spend 1000 yuan. It didn't go as well as planned so we told them to think about it and we would come back after visiting the great wall. It was getting late in the afternoon and they might even be closed by the time we came passed again. But we were willing to risk it. What can i say about The Great Wall of China ? It is incredible and we were so blessed that it had rained. By the time we got to the wall, the rain had stopped, the sun came out, and apart from one or two tourists, we had the whole section of The Great Wall at Mutianyu to ourselves. this tourist area had a cable car to take us to the top, and a speed slide way (or Toboggan as we would call it). We went up and down via cable car. The views at the top were breath taking, we even had the sun shining through the mountain mist. What a fantastic day. Someone decided he had to have a beer on the Great Wall and also take a piss. Yes i do have a photo of this. We actually didn't climb very far - we weren't in the hiking mood especially in the heat and humidity. The little way we walked was fascinating. One part was incredibly steep. Almost vertical. We ran into a man selling things...they seem to be everywhere in China. Corey bargained hard and got us both a small metal plaque that says we climbed the Great Wall. We even have a video of the haggling that went on between the Dragon Master and the chinese man. Hilarious!!! Up on one section of the wall, I climbed up some stairs that led to lookout. I found a man with a worm. He showed it to me. Strange ! It was a really big one. Again, i have a photo of man and worm. Back down at the base of the tourist area was many shops. Many people wanting us to buy from their shop. Of course, we bought some t-shirts and other chinese souvenirs. It was 5pm and we only just got back to the Jade Factory to make the purchase. It was the hardest piece of bargaining ever. But I would not budge. Two bracelets for 1000 yuan was my price. The price that we reached an agreement on was 1200. That's 600 per bracelet. They didn't look happy but I have heard that sometimes that is just for show. The price of the bracelets were orginally priced as 3380 yuan and 2280 yuan. So I guess i got the price down to one fifth. Its still $200 aussie dollars that i spent. I felt good about the purchase. the Dragon Master was well and truly sick of jade by the end of it. In fact he was walking around telling them in the factory that jade is ugly. I didn't care, i got two beautiful bracelets. Time to pack again, this time for Xi'an.