Train toilet.

Forgot to mention that the toilet flush consists of a flap in the bottom of the bowl that dumps into a 6in pipe directly onto the tracks.

More trains

We are on the train again. On the way from Xi'an to Guangzhou. We finally had a splurge and went for the soft sleeper cabin. There was no way we were going hard sleeper for 27 hours. We are so glad we did. It is more than twice the price and at about au $120 each its not cheap but its so worth it. At the start of the journey we had the entire carriage to ourselves. Now a few of the other cabins have people in but not many. It is so peaceful and we have a door we can lock. I went for a walk along the train from end to end and the seats are fully packed, the hard sleepers are 2/3 full.
  It was quite pleasant to return to our little cocoon.

Good for your health?

On what planet has this signwriter been residing. Certainly on earth inhaling smoke of any kind into your lungs can not be "good for your health".
  This sign is outside the hostel restaurant.

Xi'an Muslim Quarter

Today we explored the Muslim area in the middle western section of the city. I had heard about this mutton soup that is quite famed in that area. I found a "restaurant" that supplied said soup and ordered a bowl. It was ok. No realy tasty, just ok. It is mainly a thin white soup base with a little bit of glass noodles and various bits of mutton type animal. The identifiable bits were, stomach, intestine, liver and eyeball. It is provided with a large triangle of 3/4 in thick damper style bread to soak the juice up with. Needless to say Sharon didn't try it.
  After lunch we went wandering around the back streets and found plenty of stalls and fruit and vegies on the street. Also there were butcher shops and a fish shop where the lady tipped out a fish bin full of large fish and proceeded to smash them on the head with a piece of 1/2 in pipe to kill them before putting into a sack for the customer. It is the picture with a bicycle in front.
  Also Sharon found a restaurant selling "new Muslim main curses".

Terracotta Warriors

Today we went to the Terracotta warriors. It is very interesting to see the excavation process in action. Apart from the first found warrior which is an archer all of the discovered warriors are broken, the reason being they were discovered by another emperor and ordered destroyed. Also they were housed underground and the roofs had long since rotted away and caved in. It is quite amazing to be looking at so many things created by human hands 2200 years ago. The main pit contains approximately 6000 individuals the other 2 pits another 2000 so over 8000 all together and they believe there are more as these are a long way from the emperors tomb, about 1.5km.
There are archers, horsemen, generals and foot soldiers. All full sized and all with unique faces.

Outside the museum we saw the fireworks truck. Looks like fun.

Xi'an city wall

The old city wall that once surrounded the city is now only capturing the center of it. The city is now many times bigger than the wall boundary. It is about 14km around and is a rectangle. The surface is fully paved and about 12 - 14 m wide. There is also a moat all around the outside.
  We hired bicycles from one of the hire places on top and went for a ride. Sharon turned back after about 1/2 hour and I completed the circuit alone. There wasn't much of interest, only the train station we had already seen and a temple, but it was a fun experience.

Jupiter

We were just out wandering the streets and Sharon found a huge telescope. We paid ¥10 and had a look. We could see Jupiter and 4 moons, it was fantastic.
The green light is the sighting laser.

Interesting encounters

WARNING! don't look at the photo whilst eating.
Just off the train this morning we encountered a mess that a large van had driven over. It was about 40m from the front of the train station. We were not entirely surprised, all you can do is look and say "welcome to China" and take a photo for the blog. So we did.

  The second encounter was much more lighthouse hearted. We are sitting at the hostel, playing cards while waiting for our room to be ready. Along comes a happy young German fellow and starts pulling out vials of liquid and needles. He didn't have time to do all 3 rabies shots before leaving home so had brought the last one with him. His friend came down a few minutes later to help him out. It was uneventful but different.

More China trains

We are on another Chinese train. This time from Beijing on the way to Xian.
  It's great, being an air conditioned train they don't allow smoking in the carriages. Stupidly they encourage it between the carriages (which are closed in so the train is like a big tunnel) and the people don't shut any doors so they might as well let people smoke in the carriages anyway. It is quite disgusting not having a choice of even 1 smoke free area. Also there are no openable windows so if you want any fresh air there in nothing you can do. Hopefully I won't get too sick.

All Things Dull and Ugly

A Monty Python classic song to make you think and smile.

Please sing it out loud to the tune of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful'

All things dull and ugly,

All creatures short and squat,

All things rude and nasty,

The Lord God made the lot.

Each little snake that poisons,

Each little wasp that stings,

He made their brutish venom,

He made their horrid wings.

All things sick and cancerous,

All evil great and small,

All things foul and dangerous,

The Lord God made them all.

Each nasty little hornet,

Each beastly little squid,

Who made the spiky urchin?

Who made the sharks? He did.

All things scabbed and ulcerous,

All pox both great and small,

Putrid, foul and gangrenous,

The Lord God made them all.

Amen.

Centipede

Last night Sharon saw a centipede on the floor just near my bed. I caught it in a container and might let it go later on. It did look quite sick though. Maybe it caught our cold. I have given it a wet piece of tissue so it can have a drink.
We are feeling a bit better today and should be back out exploring tomorrow.

We're still here

I have also gotten the flu, so no going out for a day or so. It actually would have been very surprising if we had not caught something. The way people cough without covering their mouths and constantly spit and blow snot out of their noses onto the street is quite disgusting, and its not just the odd person here and there, it's everyone, man, woman, child.
  Anyway we're still here and will have some more stories soon as we get better.

Wall. Forgot to say.

I forgot to say that sadly Sharon has a bit of a cold and did not come along, opting for the bed and heater instead.
  The other thing is the part of the wall we visited is not the usual tourist spot. It is a bit out of the way and apart from us there was only about 4 other people. The wall at Badaling where most people go has been so heavily restored that it is about as authentic as a plastic souvenir so I am quite lucky to have gone to the part I did.

The Great Wall

I hadn't realised until one of the other guys pointed out, we have visited one of the wonders of the world.
  It was COLD again. Actually in-between some bricks I found a hole that had frost crystals growing in it. It was mid day.
  On the way there we got pulled over by the police and the driver got a fine for having too many people in the van. We waited for a bit for a taxi to come then 3 got into it. After we went around the corner everyone got back into the van and continued on the way to the wall.
  When we arrived we went up and walked around. The section we visited is about 500 years old and comprised of a restored part and unrestored part. On the restored section the outer granite part is original only the top brick walking surface and walling is restored.
  I didn't go all the way to the top as the way was quite steep and time was limited. I do wish I did now as you can see the wall snaking way across the mountain tops. I did go to the unrestored part and spent about half an hour poking around and taking photos by myself contemplating the manpower, time and skill it would have taken to build such a thing.

Forbidden City

Firstly, COLD! It was interesting to see through the emperors palaces. Mostly walking around outside and looking through the opened but fenced off doors into the palace halls. The main halls where the emperor lived and ruled from had thrones on display. In the surrounding buildings where important guests stayed the buildings house the museum collections. We had a look into one with paintings and another with pottery most going back 1000 years.
  The scale of the place is incredible. The main buildings are on bases of marble and the beams are huge. The stones in the gates are massive and there is one carved stone that sits between the stairs that weighs 200 tonnes.
Tomorrow the wall.

Beijing

After a quick 4 hours on the fast train we got to Beijing. It's cold. Bloody cold. Even I am wearing a merino undershirt and a jumper, long pants and gloves, and its still cold. Tomorrow I'm even changing my crocs for shoes and socks.
Today we went to Tiananmen square. Apart from a huge gate and a memorial hall to the great Mao it is quite barren. There is security screening just to walk onto it which is a bit confusing, there's nothing realy there.
  We also had a look around the railway museum which is quite good. There's 4 floors, the basement has sand table models of the achievements of China's railways and flashest stations.
The ground floor had a lot of memorabilia of the old trains, the next floor is dedicated to the high speed trains, the top floor had some maps and computerized displays.
 

More Mount Tai pictures

Some more pictures of Mount Tai (Tai'Shan) and the path. The incredibly long and steep steps are the last ascent at the top.

Three Wheelers Everywhere

All over this place there are these three wheeler bikes, cars and even trucks. The truck was a complete surprise, whoever would have thought it, a full size deisel truck with double wheels at the back and a single at the front.

Sunrise

We got up at 05:30 and visited the "dry reach inducer" or squat toilet without running water. With that out of the way we put on all the clothes we had brought up. It was freezing outside but thanks to merino undershirt and synthetic longjohns I was warm but Sharon still cold. In fact everyone seemed cold except for me. I even made several new friends that were amazed I wasn't wearing a jacket.
The sunrise was fantastic, see the pictures, nothing more need be said.
  We got the cablecar back to mid mountain where we walked up from yesterday and Sharon caught the bus down. I wanted to see the rest of the path so walked down. It took about 3 hours and I was slower than a tranquilized snail by the time I got back to the hostel but it was worth it. Now I have walked every step.

Tai'Shan pics

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