Conversations from China

I have now arrived in China, which is made even more exciting by the fact I have now managed to find a way to access things previously blocked to me!

Beijing was increcibly cold after our time in Thailand, but with many layers I managed to survive, and have now moved further inland and south where it is slightly warmer. It was in fact so cold in Beijing that all the lakes were frozen over, enough so that I was able to walk across them.

I think the best part of Beijing was definitely visiting the Great Wall - it was in fact so good that we went twice. Luckily we have met a few people in China who have been incredibly helpful and friendly (being foreigners we really do stick out quite dramatically) so a lovely man helped us get to the wall on the second day when we ventured out on our own. It was definitely well worth it though. We also visited Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. One thing I can say about them all is that they were definitely not done with modesty in mind as the scale of them is fantastic.

Moving from Beijing to Xi'an was a bit of an experience too. The only train ticket we could get out of Beijing was a 'standing' ticket for a twelve hour journey. It is pretty much what it sounds like - a ticket to get on the train then stand around in the aisles till you reach your destination. We did meet some really friendly students from the Oeking University who were going back home for the Spring Festival who invited us to share their seats with them where we passed the time playing cards and trying to talk to each other. It was not as big a disaster as I was expecting.