Beijing, including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City or is it the Imperial Palace Museum?

I was in Beijing again yesterday for one day. I was sad it was only one day but I have run out of time to travel any longer. Perhaps on account of having Chinese friends in New Zealand (and around the world), I felt the most at home in Beijing out of any other place I visited and would certainly be happy to spend some time living there.

With only one day to spare, I made the most of it, and pre-organised a tour to the Great Wall, Olympic park, and some other sights (I will post photos later). I also spent a small fortune on tea and silk, in leiu of a Mongolian horn which I still have the option to order from New Zealand if I really miss it so badly. I am just hoping the tea makes it through New Zealand customs as I am looking forward to sharing it with people back in New Zealand. It is sealed so here's hoping.

While in Beijing I was flattered by the more than a few pretty Chinese girls that seemed to be taken with my blonde hair and asked to pose in more than a few photos with me. I would always ask the reason, and they would always explain in halting English that it was just nice to have a photo together with a cute boy. I was never one to disagree.

Lack of photos

Apart from the countryside I have a real lack of photos from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

The reason for this is the pick pockets. I have found myself a target several times, and while none of the pick pocketting attempts have been successful (I have detected them), I now carry as little as possible, which means not carrying my camera unless I absolutely need it.

I am not the only one who has been targetted. By chance, I met up with the Dutch tourists again that I met at the country side ger camp. We decided to have dinner together, and on the way to the restaurant we were all targetted. Even their elderly parents were robbed (but they also detected it in time successfully).

Out of necessity, I am a lot more aware of the people around me when I walk the streets now. I check who is following me through doorways and always have my hand over the zip on my bag.

I think it'll take me a while once I get back to New Zealand to stop looking at everyone like paranoid android.

The pick pockets seem to work in gangs. I guy walked up to me yesterday, arms open, saying "hello - what's your name - where are you from?". There were also a bunch of sifty guys following close behind me, and I could see what was going to happen next. Making sure I had all my hands safely over all my possessions, I put my head down and kept on walking.

Strange Dreams

I had strange dreams last night of men with large feathers coming out of their heads riding on the backs of giant eagles through the sky.

The basis for this was seeing giant eagles traveling through the country, and then heading with Laura (a fellow traveler) to see the Mongolian Grand National Orchestra, combined with a number of small ensembles, a dance troupe and a contortionist.

We were fortunate to get seats in the middle of the third row (it was a large hall, comparable to the Wellington Town Hall) and it was quite simply one of the most stunning shows I've seen in my life. Photos were prohibited but fortunately somebody else has taken some which I have found on the internet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbailliez/7724204086/lightbox/

The flute player was amazing, and had his circular breathing well down. He was able to keep up a continuous note for around 5 minutes (the entire piece he was playing), which on flute is nothing short of incredible. His manual dexterity around the instrument was also incredible, far better than my own.

One of the instruments I really enjoyed the sound of was the Surnai, otherwise known as the Ever Buree. I am thinking about buying one to bring back to New Zealand, but they are very expensive. It is essentially a cows horn, with a clarinet mouth piece keyed like a saxaphone. They are $1500 NZ to buy as a proper instrument in a music shop. Tempting, but expensive.

Also yesterday I went to the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan. It was like the forbidden city in Beijing, very similar architecture, with the difference that all the artifacts were still intact, I could get up close and personal with everything, and I was the only person there. It was the most impressive surviving temple I have seen in Asia. Security was non existent, I just walked in, and then got given a free ticket by a guy departing (tickets normally cost about $2.50). Of particular interest to me were what looked like stuffed birds from New Zealand and the Antarctic. Included in the collection was a kakapo and a pukeko. I am not an ornothologist by any means, so I am going to go back today and take some photos to confirm or deny the birds are or are not what I think they could be. One of the other amazing things I was there was a Leapord Skin ger, made out of 150 snow leapord pelts. Bogd Khan was a King, and nobody who has ever sighted any of his posessions could ever doubt it.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

I've been in Mongolia two nights already, staying in UB at Liz's house. Liz is a New Zealander, but has learned Mongolian during her time here. Her families home is full of reminders from New Zealand. There is an English / Maori sticker in the bathroom telling people to wash their hands and her kids were trying to calculate the travel distance between Auckland and Whakatane when I arrived as part of their NZ correspondence school course work.  We had Rice Bubbles and Milk for Breakfast which has become a rare treat traveling through Asia.

I knew Liz and her family were in Mongolia before setting out, and I was told to contact them if I ever needed to.

Well, as chance would have it, I fell ill on the Trans Mongolian, arrived in Ulaanbaatar, and knew I was not up to finding a dingy guest house, getting ripped off by taxi drivers or keeping my wits about me to guard all my stuff. So, I called Liz, pleaded for help, and within the hour I was in Liz's house, quietly dying in their spare room, which was exactly what I needed at the time.

Tonight, my third night in Mongolia, I feel much improved. I'm in the country side after a 4WD and horse ride out here, (the horse was required to get us over the rivers the 4WD could not handle) and the scenery is stunning, sort of like Strathean in Autumn, which reminds me of home.

The Trans-Mongolian Railway

My original plan for my trip was always to make it to Mongolia. With this in mind, once in Beijing, and with trains only leaving a couple of times a week, it made sense to buy my train ticket at the soonest opportunity and visit Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai properly on my return journey if time permitted.

Buying the train ticket was an adventure in itself and was really my first introduction at how hard navigating in China could get. I had researched the purchasing of the ticket in advance, as originally purchasing the ticket was going to be the first item of business after leaving New Zealand.

Sighting my first Ger, Camel and Eagle from the train was very exciting. On the train I met a girl called Laura from Germany. She was a musician and we spent the next few days travelling together.

The

The robbery

Beijing (first visit)

My GPS proved invaluable again tonight and the compass feature is great. I was able to navigate the 6.5 kms from Tianemen square to my hostel, through a complete maze of Hutong and saw lots of exciting sights, sounds and smells. Old men gambling, street stalls and BBQs, lanterns everywhere, people galore. I loved it.

After the expense of Dalian, where prices were equivalent to or higher than New Zealand for most places we went, I have been enjoying getting lost in all the alley-ways and discovering the street food, all of which can be bought for very low prices.

The old town parts of Beijing seem intimate and have a lot of character. The temperature here is satisfyingly cooler than South East Asia, and the hutongs really are the kind of place I would not mind sitting back in and people watching for a few hours.

While my Chinese is hardly adequate, combined with my guide book and some Chinese peoples very limited English skills, I have been able to get by. Sometimes Chinese people get a bit exasperated with me when I cannot understand anything they're saying. However I feel inspired to go back to New Zealand and be a much better Chinese Language student, particularly of the characters, as written English only seldom exists here, and only then as a courtesy (nobody seems to put much effort into getting it right).

I have run into some trouble with the Chinese language myself while I've been here

Firstly, I think I accidentally tried to sell my taxi driver my GPS. I said 'wo yao mai gps' and the taxi driver said, 'duo xiao tian', which means 'how much?', so I must have got the tone for 'mai' (meaning buy or sell - depending on which way you say it) muddled?

Also, there is no Chinese word for toilet in my guide book. The only phrase it has related to toilets is, 'wo laduzi', under the health section, which combined with gestures may perhaps deliver fast results in the form of urgent gesticulation towards the nearest toilet from some poor Chinese person, but never-the-less I am sure there is more appropriate language to ask where the bathroom is. If any Chinese friends happen to know, I would really appreciate the word for toilet in pinyin as I will be back in China before the end of my trip.

'Qingwen, Wo Laduzi' will have to work for the moment however if I get desperate.

Dalian to Beijing on the night train

There is a sign on the toilet that says "no occupation while stabilizing".

I'm not totally sure what this means, but I assume that at least in my instance, if you have been pigging out on Dalian seafood at an all you can eat sea food buffet, and as a result feel you need some stabilisation, do not spend time doing it in the toilet.

Interrpreting more widely, it also might mean, don't do your business while the train is at the station.

As the sleeping cars were full, and only seated and standing places were still available, the remaining good spots filled up fast