Banned in Beijing!

It was a great surprise to reach our budget hotel in Beijing and find a DSL line in the room to get on the Internet! So, I updated the blog with the last entry, uploaded photos and then tried to look at what I had done, but I couldn’t access the completed blog. Not sure if it’s just this connection, or whether we are just not permitted to view blogs here (tried some other blogspot sites, but couldn’t view them either.) Anyway, doesn’t matter…just another excuse not to go back and fix typos…

We arrived in Beijing three days ago. The Mongolian train from Ulan Bator was truly first class, and had a lot more tourists on it than our train from Moscow. Scenery was awesome, and though the border crossing took a long time, all went well.

I’ve got a really great first impression of China. Beijing is quite nice – our hotel is better than I expected (for the $25 per night we are paying!) and people are super-friendly, even when they don’t speak English – or at least I think they are being friendly… Our hotel is a bit out of the central tourist district, but this bodes well with us, as we like this area better, and we are close to the subway and still walking distance (45 min) to Tienemen square (I know that’s misspelled, but I’m too lazy to look it up now.) As the pictures (which have been added to the latest album by now) show, we have visited the famous square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. Poor Matthias, he just hates going to these tourist sites – with their hefty entrance fees – but is afraid of getting back and having to face people who ask: “so, how was the great wall?” if he doesn’t go. As for me, I enjoyed seeing the sights, almost as much as walking around the different neighborhoods.

We have been eating well, also. Matthias is still thrilled with the prices. Our eating strategy includes street food when available, and then going into restaurants where others are eating, so we can just point to the food that looks good. Of course, that can be a problem when Matthias wants to eat supper at 5:45 and no one else is eating yet! But we have managed.

Tomorrow, we are taking a night train to Pingyao – a town I read about in the Lonely Planet guide, about half way to Xian. Unfortunately, sleeper carriages weren’t available, so we will be in the crowded seat section for the night (a far cry from our first class transSiberian experience, I think. But hopefully we’ll have a decent ride and be able to book more comfortable accommodation for our onward journeys. At least the hotel/hostel accommodations throughout China look like they’ll be both nice and affordable. That definitely helps!

Will post this and the photos soon (Internet in the room doesn’t seem to be working tonight.)