it was 7.40 when we got to the mongolian border. lonely planet says it takes 5 hours to cross...it took us 5 and a half! we finally pulled away from the chinese border town at something past one in the morning. thankfully our lovely chinese attendant (train 24 is chinese run)opened the loo door quickly between border towns.
so yet again we entered a new country in the dark so missed the end of the gobi desert and inner mongolia.
by the time we woke up the scenery looked like a chinese woodcut. odd cracks in the uneven earth and little hills, dried out riverbeds, trees in surprising places, enclosed settlements (hutongs?) built of mud bricks and lots of maize and sunflowers growing. we saw people working in the fields, loading ox and donkey carts and the inevitable bicycles. later there were filthy industrial places, belching out smoke and then grapes growing under netting supported on poles. even this far north there were dinky little paddy patches.
we kept looking for the great wall. it should have been there, the book said so! but it was misty so maybe it was there. however, the river gorge was stunnng as we went in and out of tunnels on our way to beijing.
beijing greeted us with grey skies and rain, the first day without sun of the whole trip thus far!
we piled off at the station and were found by macy, a vivacious young girl who was to be our guide. she installed us in the rainbow hotel which she said was a 3 or 4 star, we could decide. i told her she was hedging her bets. she told me she likes being a guide to foreigners as she gets to improve her english for free! and made me write down 'hedging your bets'!
a quick wander and some sweet and sour chicken with fried rice and lou's tummy is in revolt again! this corner of the city is surprisingly quiet and low rise. neither of which i expected.
here we go around the learning curve again! :)
16/11 the photo is of the chinese carriage attendant, very efficient!
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