8th July 1992 Day 354

The Diary

Tickets stamped 4 times, bags weighed and a fight through the crowds outside the station. The platform was peaceful & orderly and I climbed aboard the 7:40am Beijing - Ulan Bator - Moscow international express. Only 2 room-mates. Andrei Protapopov (honestly) a Russian studying Chinese in Beijing, who had an English girlfriend, read Viz and was smuggling porn back to Novosibirsk and Mr Liu a Chinaman who was going to Hungary to compete in a computer game competition and was accompanied by 27 bottles of Chinese beer & enough food to get him there and back. 

Mr Lui

Andrei also spoke English and had a few friends in the next carriage where Ken & Debbie and the Western hordes were. The day passed quickly - I talked to Andrei, made signs to Mr Lui, Ken brought Mark & Tony the drunken Hong Kong jockeys along to keep me amused, a couple of journeys to the restaurant car at the far end of the train took up several hours due to the number of doors that had to be opened & closed on the way, I talked to Trevor & Carolyn in their deluxe 2-berth cabin, I got stuck in to the Grapes of Wrath and suddenly we were at Erlian (or Erenhot) at the Chinese border around 9pm local time. 

Passports were collected, forms filled in & the train was taken away to have its wheels changed. Andrei helped us spend our last few Yuan on sausages, biscuits & pot noodles & we re-boarded the train. The train trundled across the border and we went through the immigration process again, health forms, customs forms, passport check etc. We arrived at Erlian on time but after we got going again, 7 1/2 hours later we were about 4 hours late and very tired.

7th July 1992 Day 353

The Diary

The bus driver got lost on the way to the Ming Tombs and it took us about 3 hours to get there. It's a shame he found it really. It was crap and very much like being in the London Underground. We also stopped at an expensive souvenir shop on the way, surprise, surprise, but as usual I wasn't tempted.

Me and Ken

After the tombs we went for a Chinese meal with our fellow passengers and the food was pretty good. We eventually made it to the wall and Badaling about 5 1/2 hours after we left the hotel. We had 90 minutes there but I could easily have stayed longer. The wall is really impressive even if it is obvious that the bits we were on have recently been rebuilt. The wall just goes straight up & down the hillsides and is incredibly steep at times. Photo opportunities were limited by the ubiquitous Chinese hordes and the t-shirt / postcard / water sellers that had stalls every hundred yards along the wall. We went right to the end of the open section of wall at the steepest side so we managed to escape the crowds.

On the way back we were taken to a factory, which I boycotted, and once back at the hotel we dropped off our gear and headed to McDonalds. I then got a bit of food in for the forthcoming journey & called it a day.

6th July 1992 Day 352

The Diary

Ken, Debbie & I caught a taxi to the Mongolian embassy. We were the first westerners there and we only had to wait about 45 mins before we got our visas but I think some people in the queue must have been waiting all day. The whole process was slowed by a couple of people coming in and plonking a pile of passports on the table which they processed before anyone else. For some reason the visa was more expensive for British passport holders. I don't know why, they weren't one of our colonies.

 I then caught the underground to CITS and picked up my ticket. As usual I was the only westerner on the underground. China seems to have few independent travellers but lots of package tourists who are transported everywhere by bus or taxi by their ever-present guide. They might have visited China and seen a few monuments but they haven't experienced China or its people. They'll all have certainly missed the fun of getting on & off the underground trains. Everyone gets off as everyone else tries to get on - all at the same time.

In the afternoon the three of us booked a trip to the Great Wall for the following day and then I went for a walk to Jingshan Park behind the Forbidden City, having abandoned the idea of hiring a bicycle. Apparently there are about 8 million bikes in Beijing and I would have said that was a low estimate. The government has banned croggying & riding non-hander. Spoilsports.

The park was filled with the hordes of Chinese holidaymakers with their tour guides and cheap auto-focus cameras that seem to congregate in their snap-happy millions at every tourist attraction in the city. It's impossible to take a photo of a sight without at least a hundred snappily-dressed (a bit of sarcasm) locals in the photo. I then went to the stupa in Beihai Park and the crowds were just the same there. At least I got to look at some of the terracotta soldiers that had been put on exhibition there.

In the evening the three of us ate at a genuine Chinese sidewalk cafe that we picked out at random. With the help of a phrase book we managed to order some dishes which turned out to be exceptionally good. It was reasonably cheap even though we were probably charged at foreigners' rates. As usual.


2012
I think we were after Peking Duck. When in Rome.

5th July 1992 Day 351

The Diary


Woken at 10 to 6 by the guard as we were soon to arrive. The previous morning we'd been awoken by some horrible muzak - I don't know which was worse. Everyone decided to leave getting washed until we were in our hotels. The train arrived spot on time, exactly 33 1/2 hours after it had left. On the platform I saw the English lad with the heavy rucksack. He'd been in hard class and he looked like shit. Mind you he looked like shit before he got on the train. At least he's flying home in a couple of days time.

Ken & Deborah are on the same Peregrine trip as me but we had different people to meet us and we had two chauffeur driven cars to take us to the Xinqiao hotel. I'll have to hand in my independent traveller permit & declare myself a bona fide tourist. At least I don't have to follow someone holding a flag. The hotel was playing a muzak version of Auld Lang Syne as had the train. The train also had a muzak Jingle Bells. I was given my instructions about getting my train ticket by my guide & then I headed for the shower.

It was about 8am by this time & I was starving. I headed to the Western restaurant and for 20 Yuan (2 pounds) I tucked into their buffet. A bit biased towards eggs and the food was going cold but it was edible. They're trying but they've not quite got it right. Maybe they should visit the YMCA International.

Then I headed out into Beijing. The city is very orderly with huge, wide and long, perfectly straight roads. Each block is about a km long but it all seems pretty peaceful as the majority of the traffic is bikes & buses. There are trees everywhere which provide plenty of shade from the sun, which is a good job as you have to do a lot of walking to see everything.

I visited the Forbidden City and Palace. Big & imposing but I was disappointed really. I'm not keen on these foreigners only ticket offices where you have to pay umpteen times more than the locals to see the same things. The palace cost 3 pounds to get in (another 2.20 if you wanted a taped commentary by Peter Ustinov) whereas the Taj Mahal cost 2p. I know which was the better value. Tiananmen Square was absolutely huge and was exactly as I'd imagined the centre of Moscow to be. It was all very Orwellian with a huge painting of Mao beaming down from the Tiananmen rostrum. I spilt some of my own blood on the square. Did I cut by knee on some glass or did it start to bleed spontaneously in sympathy for the students? I'll never know.

I then walked out to the CITS building to try & get my train tickets. No luck it was closed. I caught the subway back to the hotel & then went to McDonalds round the corner. How fortunate to be so near. Then I went to the Temple of Heaven passing through some windy lanes where the people actually lived. No animals, probably all in the cooking pots, only people and bikes. And it was spotless. The Indians could learn a thing or two. I've hardly noticed any spitting either. Someone's been giving the Chinese a bad press. The temple was quite interesting but I took a few more photos of the people as I wandered around. Much more interesting. Back at the hotel I had a can of beer, given to me by Ken, my first since Bangkok and then took it easy for the rest of the evening. Highlight of the day: pulling in to Beijing & watching hundreds of OAPs doing their Tai Chi all along the tracks. Slow motion kung fu. It's a bit more hygenic than the Indians shitting by the tracks.


2012

4th July 1992 Day 350

The Diary
With Wilbert's help I managed to get some breakfast in the dining car. I was the only western face, surrounded by hordes of slobbering Chinese smoking like chimneys & making as much mess as possible. Then we all set about the task of wasting the day. We chatted, looked out the windows, read, slept, walked up the train to look at the hard class and I even tried some Cantonese with Wilbert as the teacher.

I managed to get my evening meal in the dining car without Wilbert's help but as usual I was the only westerner in there. I picked out my meal from a menu totally in Chinese. I worked out in Guangzhou which symbols meant chicken and which meant beef. I picked a dish that had beef in it and it turned out to be OK. The two Chinese men I was sat with took pity on my efforts with the chopsticks and ordered me a spoon. I'm just getting the hang of square chopsticks and they give me round ones which have proved even more difficult to control. 

China Railway Map

Later on I played Scrabble with Arthur & Jenny - how civilised - and kept up my winning streak. And by that time the day had flown by & it was time for bed again.



2012
I felt quite embarrassed that my chopstick skills were so bad that they ordered me a spoon. Fortunately I've improved in the last 20 years. 

Current Scrabble top score 535.


Guangzhou to Beijing - about 2,200km




View Larger Map 

3rd July 1992 Day 349

The Diary

The start of the big train ride. Hong Kong customs was as straightforward as ever and everybody was processed prior to getting on the train. The express to Guangzhou took 2 1/2 hours and it was almost like being on BR - except everyone else spoke in Cantonese. The express pulled into a special international train station and the immigration / customs / health formalities were simple & straightforward.

Temple of the 6 Banyan Trees

Tai Chi

Pearl River

Then it was out into the Chinese world. I quickly found the left luggage at the real railway station & deposited my backpack, paying in HK dollars. The square outside the station was heaving with people but I got across without any bother and found a hotel to change some money. With that done I set off to kill 9 hours in Guangzhou.

Nutters

Chopstick Architects

The roads were wide & long and all the main roads had accompanying cycle tracks. Traffic? Buses & bikes. I found the Temple of the 6 Banyan Trees and then I walked to the river. Here I caused a huge crowd by catching the attention of one of the local nutters. I didn't mind being the centre of attention - I feel quite relaxed after India. There might be more Chinese but they pressure you less. I found a cafe and had a chicken curry, walked through a park and watched the OAPs doing their tai chi shadow exercises, wandered round a friendship store (McVities Digestives, Polos, Liptons Tea, etc.) and then headed towards the station.

At the station the entrance hall was chaos, but I wandered around and soon worked out that the big electronic scoreboard allocated waiting rooms to trains. I found which one was mine and went to wait. I chatted for a while to an English girl who seemed a bit stressed out & then we were joined by a 19-year-old English lad and his 35kg rucksack, bongo drum, bag of cassettes and his hi-fi. Travelling light. 


About half-an-hour before the train was due to go we were let on. A luxury cabin, with Arthur & Jenny, two ex-pat Brits and Wilbert from HK. No smokers. Heaven. In the cabin on one side: Trevor & Carolyn, on the other: Ken & Deborah. Plenty of people to talk to & the more Brits, the fewer Chinese spitters. I managed to get some rice & chicken in a polystyrene box from a man with a trolley & then I hit the bed. Highlight of the day: the market in Guangzhou that sold all kinds of meat to eat including crabs, toads, big slimy, crawly things, small birds and....kittens.


2012
I think Guangzhou has changed radically in 20 years judging by some of the pictures of the place. Mind you that's true of all Chinese cities.