Walls, walls and more walls

Hello all,

A couple of last mentions on Hong Kong. I forget, because I'm so used to it, but HK is visually, a very striking city. It's still 90% rainforest and very hilly. The skyscrapers are built amongs that. Tree roots grow over walls and in the background is the sea dotted with islands. It is completely unique.

2nd. I finally bought a digital camera. I need it for the underwater world, but am using it all the time at the moment (partially because I had to send my other cameras home in the post - not enough room in my bag). I like it alot, but the zoom isn't long enough. I might be converted to digital after all!

3rd. I went to see Star Wars Episode 3. First showing onthe first day : ) Amazing film if not a little shocking in places. The Jedi Temple for one - you know what I'm talking about. Even though you know what has to happen, you still hope it won't. I'd never really appreciated before that the first trilogy is about evil triumphing over good, whilst the second is the reverse. Thought they did an excellant job of bridging the 2 movies (new hope) considering the difference in special affects.

PS. 4th Thing - I forgot this too. Went to horse racing with Dad. His horse won for the first time for one year (excellant odds) and I got photographed with the other owners and appeared in a newspaper!!

Right, on to my travels.

Took the train to Beijing. Was rather nervous and actually nearly missed it. I was rather tired waiting in the lounge and not paying much attention. They called a train, i figured it was about time for mine and then realised it was 3.10pm. My train left at 3pm. They were calling the next train.... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Walking as fast as I can, I find a train guard, show them my ticket and frantically indicate that I may have missed it. They start rushing me down the escalator, nearly knocking the other people off it. Thankfully, my train had been delayed and was still in the station, so i climbed on and then had to find my coach.

Phew!

In a 6 bed (2 bunks of 3 beds) "room" with mixture of Chinese and Westerners. Promptly went to sleep cause knackered and woke up at 7pm. Went for dinner in the restaurant car where I met friendly Australian couple. They left and I started talking to 4 other backpackers. Baring sleep, I spent the rest of my train journey with 2 of those backpackers who I'm now sharing a room with in my hostel. One Israeli (24) and an American (44), both male. Good laugh.

They didn't know what they were doing when they arrived in Beijing so came to stay at the hostel I'd booked.

As I've mentioned before, Chinese cities are full of big buildings and rather characterless. Beijing is similar, albeit a bit better than the others.

Next morning (Tuesday), I went to sort out getting to Mongolia and my visa. The train I wanted (for next Tuesday) was full so had to take the Saturday train which left me with very little time in Beijing. Took the subway back to Tiannomon Square and bumped into the Australian couple and then the Israel (Amit). He was supposed to be meeting Tom (USA) to go to the Forbidden City. This was great, so I hooked up with them and off we went.

Amit who has seen little of Asia thought it was amazing, Tom and I were disappointed. Masses of it is being rebuilt etc. and is under scaffolding and you can't get into many of the buildings. Nevertheless it was still impressive, despite the crowds.

We also visited a cool park with pagodas and stuff. It was good fun mostly because we were posing for silly photos all the time. Think I have more photos of me now, than I usually get hold of in a year!

Today, we went to the Great Wall of China. I've always wanted to see the wall. Amit and I inisisted on walking up it, the guide wanted us to take the sliding car 1/2 way. She was worried we'd run out of time. We had 2 hours and ended up back at the van in 1 1/2 hours so that was clearly a pointless worry! Really glad we walked up cause everyone side the sliding car was pants. It's been almost completely rebuilt but is still an amazing spectcale. The view is fantastic, you can see Mongolia : ) and the wall fading off into the distance. You could imagine the hoards passing over when conquering China. Some of it is incredibly steep. How horses manage to ride over it, I don't know! Hard enough to walk down it without falling over!

After 3 days solidly in each others company, we all sort of silently agreed to do our own thing tonight. I ended up going to a show/dinner from one of the provinces. It was funny. Chinese people are full of quirky contradictions. They will often try to help you and won't tell you if they don't actually know they way - just lead you in circles or you'll try and approcah them and they just blank you. They appear reserve but you want to take photos of them being silly and they love it. On the whole, I think they are lovely. However, China has a lot of issues, many of which have been surpressed but are bound to boil over at some point.

Next time I email you will probably be from Mongolia. Think I arrive there on Monday! but could be Sunday. Can't wait.

Take it easy,
lots of love
kx

PS. Beijing has a lot of walls. They are very high. They are great because they block all the noise of the traffic out!