Crowded China

I left Hong Kong at 3pm on the train and stupidly decided to walk to the train station which made me sweat like mad with my giant backpack on my back in the humid heat.

I got on the train (24 hour journey to Beijing) and had booked the top bunk which is the cheapest in hardsleeper class . It was really hard to heave my bag upto the top and also not much head room on the top bunk. There were a few westerners on the train but not many. Your allowed to stand inbetween the carraiges to smoke so was chatting to a few blokes from Hong Kong for a bit who were also on there way to Beijing. I was sharing my tiny compartment with 5 chinese women who didnt speak much english and i thought at first they were giving my horrible looks.

I went to bed quite early at 10pm and slept quite well. Then i woke up in the morning and one of the chinese women was trying to explain to me i should get breakfast so i went and got some noodles and congee (a rice type soup thing) from the restaurant cart then the ladies in my comparment gave me some pickled vegtables to go with it and then some spicy meat which i didnt know what it was. I then came back and sat reading my book for a bit. Then one of the women sharing my compartment asked me if i was having lunch i said no im not hungry and she got some noodles out for me dont think she understood me. She gave me some spices to go with it and then gave me a roll with tuna in and then peanuts they wouldnt stop offering me food lol.

I arrived there and chatted to a english girl who recommended a hostel to stay at and took me to the tube station and showed me where to get off. I arrived at the hostel and had to stay in a single room on me own for the first night but went to the dorm the next day. That evening i went to the pekking duck restaurant on me own and was gonna have duck but only thing i could have was a whole duck or duck intestines or ducks feet and i was to hungry to try strang things right then lol so i had beijing spicy beef which was really nice and had a early night. The next day i got the tube to Tianamen square and met 2 girls from isrel and chatted to them and then went to the forbidden city which was really cool.

That night i got back to the hostel and chatted to some people from San fran sisco in america and went to the lake clubbing with them i got in at 5am and had to be up at 6am for the great wall of China tour. I felt like shit after my hours sleep and went on the trip and met a bloke from isrel and walked 7km up the great wall of china with him which was abosulutly massive and amazing and then got the tobogen down the hill and went to a restaurant for lunch with a turn table and lots of chinese dishes.

One day i went to the summer Palace which was really cool overlooking a lake and amazing buildings. Another day i went to Beijing Zoo which was horrible the animals were in such horrible conditions and i didnt like seeing it.

One night i met up with a bloke from Travbuddy and we went to a few clubs and ended up dancing with lots chinese people who were giving us lots of whiskey then got out the club at 7am and went to a food stall with lots of meat skewers frying in oil and i ate pigs ears haha.

Then another night went out with 3 dutch blokes and a couple german people and a swedish bloke and went to a meat bbq and then went out clubbing and got so drunk and i puked up after having a tequila shot haha then i went back to the hostel and slept all day the next day with the hang over.

I went to the silk market which was really cool and people on the stores grab hold of you and try and drag you in their shops. I found it easy to bargain for stuff i would choose a price and stick to it and they tried to charge 30 pounds for a hugo boss t-shirt and i got it for 6 pounds in the end. -You know when you have a bargain when the shop women chucks the t-shirt at you with a pissed off look on her face lol.

Then i had to fly to Shezen and get a bus over the boarder to Hong Kong because the trains were fully booked. I planned to travel more of China but due to flooding and fully booked trains i wasnt able to so just got to see Beijing and Hong Kong