23/9

  Friday 23 Sept 

A frustrating start to the day, with problems arranging onward bookings. Phone lines to railway jammed. Hotel travel agent not overly energetic. Eventually got booking on overnight train to Xian – no sleepers so stuck with “hard seats”!! Apparently this means something like airline chairs? Wondering how much baggage they will allow for? And about 10% of Chinese are extremely NOISY and shout all the time, for no apparent reason. It might be a sleepless night. We then booked flights to Chengdu and hostels. Hope they are 10% as good as this place. Sent email asking Chengdu hostel to book us on the 6am bus into the mountains but no reply yet. Hoping to get up there before the 1 October national holidays.

Lengthy internet search for sleeping bag outlet. About 3pm got sent to a large market specialising in sporting goods. Two stalls did have bags but no real improvement over what we have (in Perth). We will try again in Chengdu. Walked through some of the absolutely massive, glistening shopping centres in Central Beijing. One brand new one was packed with exclusive stylish clothing stores. The sort of place where they don’t display prices.

We decided to walk home past T’men square etc. The air was slightly more murky than usual but that gave the sunset a good pink hue. The office workers were just going home. All very smart and orderly. Got accosted by an effusive couple of young “art students” who wanted to take us to see some galleries. If you haven’t read Lonely Planet and go with them and have tea and cake in a tea room they take you to . . you suddenly get confronted by a bill for $300 and a few heavies who facilitate payment.

We finished off at the fruit shop, where everything seems to be below $1/kg. Grapes bananas plums and peaches.