Day 24 - Beijing

15.08.09

7.30am is the wake up time for today's tasks. A breakfast with Xiao's girlfriend in the University canteen and we meet a partner in the tour company who picks us up in his minibus. We pick up Yu, a representative from another tour company and drive to the Great Wall section at Mutianyu, about an hour away.

When we arrive we are bought some food by the rep and then head straight on up in a cable car, so far we have avoided paying the entrance charge and the cable car charge. It turns out that the rep is from a company that run's the cable car and maintains that section of the wall and Xiao's company are starting up a similar operation at the wall in Shanhaiguan, it's basically a research day into how it is run at Mutianyu.

While they talk business, Yu and I take a walk up to the top of the wall which consists of walking the wall up a mountain and by the end of it we are both knackered. So what better way to recover than a free res

taurant lunch provided by the Mutianyu wall company. After lunch we all meet the head honcho for the Mutianyu company and he gives me his card and says if I'm ever at the wall and people ask me to pay entrance, just show them the card. Next we head to an ancient unrestored section of the wall which is in a beautiful valley and the scenery is fascinating.

To end the day we head back into town and pick up Xiao's girlfriend and then the partner in Xiao's company takes us all to a massive dinner in this huge buffet style Chinese restaurant. I end up eating all kinds of things including chicken feet, grubs and locusts along with fragrant roasted duck, sushi and steak.

I really can't get over how nice they have all been to me and I haven't paid for a thing all day; they say I am their guest and Xiao now calls me a good friend and I am like

a brother to him.

Day 23 - Shenyang, Shanhaiguan, Beijing

14.08.09

Travels to an ancient walled city are on the cards today where I can visit the start of the Great Wall and see the only stretch where it was built over water. The town of Shanhaiguan is an old walled settlement between Shenyang and Beijing, may D class (which I think stands for 'Damn!' as it's so fast and plush) train arrives there in two air conditioned hours.

Today has to be the hottest day so far and I take a walk through the town walls and up it's main street in search for my hotel. I am immediately pestered by a guy who is trying to get me to stay in his hotel, at this point in time I wish I knew some more aggressive Chinese.

I finally arrive at the point where this guest house should be only to find out it has been bought out by a tour company and is now their headquarters. One guy essentially tells me to leave, but a young man called Li Xiao Yong comes and talks to me. He knows enough English to communicate and walks around town looking for a cheap hotel, but unfortunately all the rooms are booked out. We then drive around the town to the hotels that the tour company has links with, the aim is use their weight to get me a cheap room in what seems like all 4 star hotels, but every one turns out negative.

I mention that if I can't find anything I will just go to Beijing that night and forget about Shanhaiguan, it turns out Xiao and his friend Yu Jie are going to Beijing that night as well and the deal is sealed.

They introduce me to other people who work for the company and feed me and give me water, their hospitality is phenomenal. On the train there are only standing tickets left, so we buy dinner and sit in the restaurant car for the six hour journey.

When we arrive in Beijing Yu goes to his grandmas and me and Xiao head up to the University where his girlfriend has managed to find me a cheap room in University accommodation. It's about £11 a night, right next to a Subway station and I get my own double bed, so not too bad.

I go to bed feeling inspired by their kindness and how they can be so hospitable to an absolute stranger.

Day 22 - Shenyang

13.08.09

The Ming Tombs, the north park and another half marathon of walking await me on this fine Thursday. I catch the bus up to the tombs and it's my first local public transport excursion in China and being able to match the Chinese characters in the guide book with ones at the bus station and then jump on the correct bus fills me an overwhelming sense of joy.

It's amazing how the simple tasks become challenge mountains when you have no means of communication and can't even read the language.

The tombs turn out to be well worth the journey and the

park around them is beautiful, it's full of lakes, rivers, wooded ar

eas, quaint bridges, and pavilions. Old men swim in the lakes and in the roasting heat it looks so inviting, although I know if I so much as touched the green water I would instantly fall ill to some terrible disease.

People are practising Kung Fu and Tai Chi in clearings in the trees while more old men sit around and play cards or mahjong using stone plinths as table tops.

Come night time I take a bus to the South Train Station and tour it's shopping area, which is even more built up and glitzy than Harbin, it's actually quite ridiculous. I also buy some much needed fruit as my diet as consisted solely of fried street food so far, although it's tasty and the ingredients them selves are probably ok, the abundance of oil in the cooking methods can't be doing me any good.

Gorged out on fresh pineapple slices I walk back home and decide that from now on I need to curb the walking as my feet are absolutely aching.

Day 21 - Harbin, Shenyang

12.08.09

Today is my second inter city journey in China and I am off to a place called Shenyang. Again I leave plenty of time to get to the bus station and leave feeling fresh and ready for the journey. I walked from the station on the first day and walked back there to get my tickets, so I figure I can do the same again an

d decide to walk to the station.

Taking the same route as I did before I of course get lost, walk around in circles and end up further away from the station then when I started. I end up taking a taxi, arrive at the bus station as my bus is getting ready to leave and throw all my bags in the hold, which leaves me with a six hour journey with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs and watch the latest Rambo film dubbe

d over in Chinese on the buses TV screens.

Shenyang turns out to be another massive city with some ingenious architecture around the bus station. I walk for about an hour to get to my hostel and check into a single room for £10 a night, my first choice cheap dorm room was unavailable. I decide to nail a few sights in the afternoo

n and hit the Imperial Palace, which is a small scale Forbidden City and is the second best example of it's type in the country.

I also take a walk to the train station to get my onward train tickets to Shanhaiguan.

I manage to pick them up pretty effortlessly and the queues are a lot less than they were in Harbin.

Day 20 - Harbin

11.08.09

My first full day in a major Chinese City and it is a full on Chinese city experience. Harbin has about 5 million people, busy shopping streets, a train station that is the size of an oil tanker and a Wal Mart right in the middle.

On the main shopping street there are the usual sports sh

ops of Nike and Puma, along with the up market designers like Armani, it's all glitz and glamour and come evening everything lights up in a sea of neon and super large LED screens playing advertisements.

It's like a Chinese version of Times Square or Picadilly Circus. However, if you take a walk a 100m or so behind the main main shops you hit another side to the city. Narrow alleyways and small, dark, unglitzy shops. The disparity between the two sides of the Chinese economy coin is amazing, on one side you have high class fashion boutiques,

massive displays of wealth and wide imposing streets; while on the other there are small basic shack shops, people living well below the poverty line, narrow alleyways and battered roads.

Today I also get my bus ticket to take me to Shenyang. I was going to take the train as it would be cheaper, but when I got to the station I couldn't face the queues and mayhem. Imagine a city only slightly smaller than London, but with one train station serving all destinations in the country. It was ridiculous, the station staff on megaphones herding the thousands of people around and shouting at people if they stood still for too long. On a bad note I find out that my room wasn't £20 for two nights, but was actually one night and so they take more money off me.

Apparently the lady who sold it to me got it wrong in communicating it to me, although I think she just got it wrong as they need to take a different deposit and change my receipts to what they should be. I get a discount of £7 for their mistake, but absolutely annihilate the internet connection in my room in retaliation, downloading about 3.5GB worth of audio for my MP3 player.

I feel smug.

Day 19 - Vladivostok, Sufenhie, Harbin

10.08.09

Today is the day of painful ordeals and it's right from the start.

I wake up slightly later than I wanted to as I snooze through some alarms but I still have over two hours to get my bus and it's about 30mins to the bus station. I wait for a bus to take me to the station, and wait, and wait, and wait. An hour and a half later and one turns up and I am bricking it as I might miss my bus. I get off the bus early so I can run the last bit as it will be faster (Vladivostok buses have a habit of just waiting at stops for 2-3 mins for any passengers that might just amble along to catch the bus).

When I get to the station I make it just in the nick of time but my bus isn't there, after several conflicting directions from staff and passers by and running around the stops like a mad man, a woman tells me to flag down a bus that is currently pulling out of the station. I run in it's path and stop it and the d

river looks confused at my tickets smiles and tells me to get on. It turns out the bus I was booked onto didn't even run, so I'm on another one that takes the same route.

After a bus change and border checks at the Russian and Chinese check points, both of which seem to be perplexed at why I am crossing the border when everyone else is a Chinese tourist going back home, we arrive in Sufenhie. The bus pulls into 'I haven't the slightest idea', I have no Chinese currency on me, don't speak enough Chinese to ask anything and thinking I would be at a major bus station, am in a metaphorical, deep pile of brown matter.

I roam around aimlessly for a while and then a woman says something to me in Chinese to which my blank looks get another question in Russian, eventually after communicating in a language that I have the absolute basics of and what isn't even her first language, she gets her friend to drive me to a bank in his car and then

to the bus station. He puts me on the bus to Harbin and I sit there feeling even more alone and stupid for not preparing better.

The bus doesn't leave for another two hours and people are washing the windows as it's still practically in the depot, but after the day so far and shear fear, I don't move a muscle. When it eventually leaves a five hour journey later and we arrive in the northern city of Harbin.

I get off and the bus driver who has looked after me on the journey asks where I am going and I show him on my guide book map, he points to a taxi but I decide to walk it, so I can get my bearings and see some of the city. I'm sure the map scale is wrong as it's about an hours walk and with at least 20kg on my back from various things I've picked up it seems like it's miles away.

When I reach my hotel it turns out to be about 20 pounds for two nights, the rooms have computers so I can get onto the internet for free and they are big and plush. I have a walk around Harbin at night and finally the day gets better and I feel a lot happier.

If there's anything I have learnt today it's that I should probably put a bit more preparation into things when I enter totally new territory. Also, that no matter what you pack and no matter how much you pack, the most invaluable thing is language and being able to communicate.

Day 18 - Vladivostok

9.08.09

My journey into China is on the cards today. I get in at about 8am to the train station in Vladivostok and decide to try and walk it to the Bus station as it's not that far, after about 10mins I realise I don't have an accurate enough map and I can't read Russian, so jump on a bus.

After asking the driver whether he goes to the bus station I sit down and wait to see this big bustling bus station. An hour later and the bus pulls into a depot, I ask the driver if this is the bus station and he looks at me as if I'm an idiot. Luckily he puts me on another bus and tells the driver to tell me when we get to the station and doesn't charge me a fare. When we get to the station it's hidden behind a market and I would never have spotted it if I wasn't told.

I fail to notice, but it's a Sunday and so the bus service is limited so I have to buy a ticket that leaves at 8.10 tomorrow morning.

After checking into a hotel for the evening I grab some food from the super market and for the first time on the trip feel very very very lonely. I'm on the same longitudinal line as central Australia and it's the furthest I've ever been from home and I am totally alone. I think a combination between lack of sleep and the day not going as planned is making me quite down, but after a nap I feel a lot better and then hit the sack to wake up for my early bus tomorrow.

Day 13 - Day18, Trans Siberian Railway pt.2

4.08.09 - 9.08.09

The train journey of epic proportions, 6000km and 5 nights on the train from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok. I'm going 2nd class this time as there were no bottom tickets available, which means it should be quite comfortable.

I'm on the top bunk and share my cabin with a mother (Alysa), her son (Yigor), her mother (Tatiana) and father (Sergei). They turn out to be going all the way to Vladivostok and we end up sharing food and having basic conversations, Alysa

speaks English and can understand me quite well. As for the rest of the cabin, they seem to be angry all the time and never smile, I can't quite figure it out, but it seems to be a theme on Russian trains. I end up chatting to a student called Irfim who informed me that it was just the Russian way on trains and people don't really smile.

On the journey, we pass by Lake B

aikal, which is absolutely enormous.

As my book tells me, it's the deepest lake in the world, contains more than 20% of the worlds fresh water, over a thousand plants and animals that inhabit the lake can't be found anywhere else and is the oldest lake in the world. As we went past you couldn't see the other side and it stetched out to the horizon in all directions, it was like an ocean and the scenery surrounding it was beautiful. I wish I got off here, but I chickened out when buying my tickets and went for the safe option of getting a ticket all the way to Vladivostok, at least I get to see the southern side of the lake as the railway skirts it for 180km.

Again, being on a train for so long and confined to such a small space is a weird

experience. You have your bed, about 6ft in length by around 3ft width to live in and that's it. You can stand in the corridor of the train if you wish or use the bathroom, but your allocated sp

ace is where you spend most of your time.

Also being thrown in with a family who I don't know for 5 nights and sharing

what is probably smaller than a prison cell between 4 people and a small child puts you in such close contact. I ended up playing with Yigor and making faces with him so much he started to call me dada, which was slightly worrying.

There are other families on the train, lone travellers, business p

eople and a whole host of characters. By the end of the journey I had made friends with the two train attendants, Julia and Marsha and also with a few other people in the carriage, some origami models distributed and eventually people were starting to look a bit happier.

I think in general people on the trains keep them selves to them selves and don't talk to people or interact much, I decided to go against the grain and it seemed to work.

I wouldn't call the trans Siberian a spiritual journey, but you definitely end up learning something along the way about people and social interaction.