Chapter Six: China, Beijing

The day after I returned from the Gobi, I was going to Beijing. The last route of the trans Mongolian line.
The last train rail trip was something I didn't expect. I was already aware that many Dutchies were travelling the trans mongalian line. But at least 3 full carriages with fellow Dutchmen, really!!

Fortunately Boris joins again my cabine as well as an elderly couple (Johannes and Mary), very friendly people and end very fine to join the day. And as good Dutchies we put our last Mongolian money together and we wanted to buy some beer in the restoration wagon. I couldn't believe my eyes when we entered the wagon, it was a Holland house party with lots of beer and music.
A complete different story compared to the other restoration wagons, this Mongolian Chinese man knew how to run a business. Smoking was allowed, yes I still didn't quit. Many cans of beer were sacrificed for the good of a Holland House party.
With enough anti freeze in the veins everybody was hopefull for a good night sleep, despite the double border control. It wasn't the border control that kept me out of my sleep, but the boogies change. China has a different railway system and the width of the rails are smaller. Reason lies in the past, to prevent an invasion via rail in wartime. This took quite a while, all together six hours. There was also someone breaking down a rainforest in his sleep, I never experienced such an unpresedent massacre among trees, but you can imagine how I slept.

The next day the train went through 60 tunnels, mountains were decorating our eyes again, China! I mentioned that everything in Russia is big, in china it is massive. Not so much the buildings, but the number of people. "The Chinese are coming" makes sense now.

Beijing, what a vibrant city, full of energy and this is really a city that nevers sleeps. Compared to London and Amsterdam, Beijing is so much more alive. Perhaps I was lucky that my hostel was located at a perfect spot, in the middle of the artistic area. Lots and lots of tiny, funny and bizar shops. For example, hard rocking Chinese people, I can't tell how funny that was.

What to do when you have hardly 2 days for Beijing, well I did it as follows; Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, a silk factory, a tea house ending up at The Great Wall and of course eating Peking Duck.. In between I was guided to local places with my friend Eva. She was a tremendous  help, I could not have seen so many places without her.
The Forbidden Citty is enormous, what a complex...I could have lived there in the good old days. Eva mentioned that we were lucky, it was not so crowded that day, look at some photos. The Temple of Heaven was more relaxed, it was more a kind of a park where you could chill. That night we ate dumlings, with more than 100 options, really jammie. 
Next day the wall, together with a Belgium couple we climbed more the 500 stares and roughly 5 km, what magnificent views again. Fun part was that went up with an open slide and we came down sledding. I filmed it, but unfortunately I filmed only trees and nothing of the track. All in all a really cool experience. Also in Beijing i could have stayed much longer, but I have a good Reason to go back again. That night at 01.30 I was leaving to the airport, it was raining for the first time during my trip. The gods didnt wanted me to go, they wept..

Now the trans Mongolian line has ended, I asked myself if I had the time and opportunity to ask myself some difficult questions. To be honest: no, absolutely no. Reason for this is that the last 3/4 weeks were a rollercoaster of unbelievable experiences. During my journey I quickly realized that this is not a trip to wonder. Also the Gobi, I imagined and hoped to get more in touch with myself. But I went with a great group of Dutchies, and simply said I did not had the moment for myself. Sometimes of course a couple of minutes, but not the days that I need. I think after Kuala Lumpur and the F1 race I will find my moment on Tioman island. I pray to the weather gods that they will help me to get there. I just saw that I fled from a typhoon hitting China, Shanghai/Taiwan. They have been good to me this far and I only can hope that they will be in the coming months.