Left the hotel at 06:00 and a 10 minute walk to the train station was – 10 C not too cold. Went through ticket check, security and then found our waiting room. Got on to the train and there was only 6 other people in our carriage with us. But we stopped numerous times on the way to Beijing and it filled up. The 5 hour plus journey, unfortunately, we passed by some coal powered electricity stations and did not see any clear skies just this haze, not good for the environment.

It appears a lot of the farmers do their hay making in winter time, it makes sense it is dry no rain. Again every city we pass through I wonder what is the major employers, so many restaurants do they all make a profit and do the small one man business how much do they make in a day or a week. Accommodation varies from luxurious to run down looking apartments, then there is the farmers little houses I wounder how warm are they to live in as they look very run down?

Got to Beijing have a 2 hour wait for the next train, I go and get my bag I left behind at the Howard Johnson Hotel. Meet up with Penny and she has some KFC before we go through the process of getting the next train. The platform we are departing from waiting room is packed and most people queue but when it is time to proceed it is more like a stampede. Found our carriage and we have a 4 berth soft sleeper Penny given the bottom bunk and me the top on and 2 young Chinese guys in the other bunks and they speak a little English. It is a slow train to Datong going through a lot of tunnels and 5 stop offs on the way. I got speaking to a young Chinese guy he went to college in Adelaide and now is at Melbourne university in Australia, he was home for Xmas holidays. He said he could not live in China after spending so much time in Aust. But he did not know what the future holds for him in Aust.

Get to Datong find the taxi rank and it is like a cowboy town where you want to go too, show them the address and then offered 40-50 yuan and I say too much use the meter which they probably don’t understand. After 15 offers a guy said he will do it for 20 yuan which is still high, but he did not have a meter any way. Found the hotel very quirky walking in to it it is like a museum with artifacts every where, very interesting. Lady receptionist speaks English which makes life so much easier. A compact room the toilet is an electric one Penny had to use it and it did everything for her, but you have to flush it manually. Been along day need a good sleep.

Did not sleep too well last night it was so warm they have all the rooms at 24 C no windows to open, only one more night here. We walked the route from the hotel to the train station which we depart tomorrow. Just over 10 minutes check out at 06:00 tomorrow.

We took a taxi from the train station to the Imperial Palace half an hour drive under £4. Looked around Imperial Palace which is the only Imperial Place outside Beijing. It was interesting but not as good as the Forbidden City in Beijing. Afterwards we headed back into the center of town checking out shops and taking photographs and eventually got back to the hotel. The population in Shenyang is around 10 million but how do they know who comes and goes? You wonder what kind of life these people lead, working, socialising, relationships etc? and the city is polluted too. When you get the green man walk cross the pedestrian crossing you have to keep watching both sides of you as traffic still want to cross your path, most don’t give a shite about you, so you have to be so aware. The driving skills I have witnessed so far in China are dismal. Seen a driver 3 point turn on a major 4 lane road traffic having to stop for him at the same time talking on his mobile. Drivers on bikes and cars a majority have a phone stuck to them. Indicating is not always used, often seen a car cross 4 lanes within 50 m and with the mobile stuck to his ear. The scary thing is a person can get a license here in China, travel to NZ get a hire car and within 24 hours has caused a major accident and people have been killed.

Need a good sleep tonight early start tomorrow.

Left the Harbin Hotel and got a taxi to Harbin West Railway Station, have to be careful as most cities have 3 main railway stations. It was a breeze to check in and find a seat in the waiting room and then on to the train. British Rail could learn something from the Chinese and Russian trains you buy a ticket you get a seat. Was the fast train and it cruised at 304 km/ph did not seem to go that fast a distance of 600 km and did it in 2 hour plus with 4 stops. The train trip it was foggy/misty all the way.

Arrived at the station found a taxi and bought us to our hotel, checked in unfortunately the receptionists don’t speak English, but we are becoming use to this. Penny found some facts about the place and off we walked to the center of town. They have a pedestrians shopping street over a mile longs but we spotted a lot of the High St stores and Asian ones too. I spotted New Balance store so I checked out the price thinking made in China? £100 a pair in a certain sporting wear chain in the UK charge half that??
Got talking to a Chinese businessman and he invited us up to his hotel office he said he owns the hotel and the building. We chatted to him and his wife for half an hour and excused ourselves. We found the food stalls and Penny wanted to try squid on a stick she had 2 and she thoroughly enjoyed them. I was being a bit cautious after the past 2-3 days of the shits. Walking back close to our hotel we ventured into a local restaurant again no English so we picked by pictures and spotting other dishes. The rice was good fresh raw salad veg was good, Penny had meat dumplings and they all went. I selected a dish some people were eating I was thinking it was pork, sorry cold kidneys sliced you could see the red and the white make up of these organs. I did not fancy them after having the shits for past 2-3 days. Penny had a large beer and I a water came to £8.

We have a full day tomorrow seeing the Imperial Palace which is our last day here leave early Monday morning to Beijing and then on to Datong.

Had a great sleep on this memory foam mattress. I walked around and I found a barber shop. The guy could not speak any English, but I showed what I wanted hair cut and beard trim. Going to cost Yuan 25 less than £3. He washed my hair and then started pulling the hairs on my chest. Walking back to the chair he could get over how tall I was and started patting my backside. I am sure I was the first European to have a haircut and beard trim and he did a good job of it. The only thing I did not like was the combs, they were not in a sterilising solutions and he did not have the tidiest looking saloon.

Penny and I went out for lunch, similar restaurants on both sides of the streets we walked along so we went into one with picture menus on the wall, was given a menu but it was in Russian and Chinese. So we selected 3 dishes and waited. The cooking was done outside at the back of the restaurant and 1 dish arrived and the second one came 15 minutes later and 5 minutes later the 3rd dish. Penny thought she was having the healthy option but it was fried noodles with peanuts and some veg looked totally different in the photograph. After lunch we walked a little and found a shop selling a variety of things and Penny spotted one in particular Russian doll beautifully painted a total of 15 dolls inside one another. They wanted a £100 for it and in Moscow they were over £600-1000 for similar quality. But it weight a couple of kilos and we just shipped back 14 kg when in Beijing. When we left Spain I used my baggage portable scales and they said I was at 20 kg, when checking in it was actually 27 kg and we have been buying a few thongs on the way. We have 3 flights in China and baggage allowance is 20 kg so we can’t buy everything we like unfortunately.

It has been a chilling day as I am still getting over the diarrhea, lunch did not help. Plus getting over the flu and Penny’s calf muscles are still very sore after the Gt Wall walkabouts some of those steps were not designed for shorter people. We have a train to catch tomorrow mid morning off to Shenyang going to spend a couple of days there.

Went to the Beijing Railway Station an hour before departure had to queue to have our tickets and passports checked, then it was through to security another formality. This is the first time using a Chinese train so bit of a learning curve. Had to go to waiting lounge #1 and that was packed with people waiting for the Harbin train. Queued up like sheep pushing going on every direction. Once through the door we found carriage #3. Thinking this is our compartment but there is 3 adults and a baby. There is a crowd behind us wanting to board but they have to wait as I find this is our compartment bunks 1 and 2. The father was only visiting, oh the thought of a young baby in our compartment I was hoping for a good sleep. The journey was about 10 hours not a fast train. The mattresses were quite hard so not the best sleep and the baby cried a few times oh bliss.

Got out of the station and Penny’s app for where we were was not working luckily I had the address of the hotel in Chinese. Twenty minutes later after asking a few people we were directed to the hotel by a kind man. It just looked like an office building but to the left of the office lifts was another lift around the corner with the hotel name in Chinese. Had to take the lift to reception on the 24th floor. It was 08:00 and they checked us in, not a problem which was much appreciated by us both. The receptionists could not speak English but used translator and they gave us a note for the taxi driver to take us to Ice Festival and another back to the hotel. The receptionists also making coffee so Penny had a large one. Had to use another lift taking us up to the 29th floor top of the building. The room is quite spacious king size bed which Penny hopped into it, she needed a few more hours of sleep. I did the washing by hand in the sink and rinsed it in the shower I was having, convenient. After wringing it out as much as I can I use the bathroom mat and place a few items in one half of the towel, cover it up and then walk up and down the items and a lot more water comes out using this method. Have 2 large radiators and they were dried in 4 hours. I join Penny for a few hours of sleep and the mattress is memory foam as are the pillows so very comfortable, Penny is a happy lady she quoted like sleeping on a cloud.

After 14:00 we take a taxi out to the Ice Festival a 25 minute ride and cost £3 and the taxis have meters not like the Russian ones. We found the entrance bought the tickets £38 each. It was not too busy as we walked around taking everything in. The Festival organisers are still finishing off some of the sites which was unfortunate, maybe there was some delay putting it all together. Found a restaurant on the site and we had a Chinese soup with noodles beef and lots of spices and herbs in it, it was hot but we appreciated it. Just after 16:30 it was dark and all the ice sculptures were lit up in an arrange of different colours, it looked spectacular. So we walked around and through all the sculptures on show and it was getting busy. The had luge rides and inflatable rides there was a queue for both of them some of the ride lanes were work in progress unfortunately. I thought I needed to go to the toilet so I went in and there was the squat not clean. Having to peel off my selopettes, first need to take my jacket off and hoodie top then drop my trousers and thermal bottoms. Since I have had diarrhea for the past few days my risk assessment said no way. Found Penny and we got a taxi back to the hotel. Where the driver dropped us off was another shorter route to the train station so we checked it out no stairs to deal with escalators to the waiting room and it is large but full of people. Harbin has a population of 10.5 million.

I am having issues with my VPN nothing has worked for the past week what they have told me to do and I am getting pissed off, all I can get is Yahoo mail, NZ herald. BBC and FB get timed out every time and using Google Chrome is a nightmare because the Chinese block the use of it. I have asked the VPN site can I call them in the morning so we can sort this issue out. Got one full day tomorrow in Harbin going to walk around the city and explore.

Got my travel bag with all the stuff we want to send back to England and because the streets were so congested we walked for 20 minutes to the China Post International. Found some one who spoke a little English and they provided a big box and we placed most of the items into it. Anything metal they would not take and Penny’s hair tongs. Weighed just over 14 kilos all the paper work completed and cost under £50 take 2 months two get there.

We checked out of the hotel and went to the Temple of Heaven it was okay but what really took my eye was an area of people 60 years plus foot kicking a big shuttle cock they made it look so simple. In this area was a variety of simple work out machines, parallel bars, climbing frames. There was a gentlemen in his 80’s hanging upside down on a gymnastic bar and then going around countless times. These people all looked fit and healthy and it makes you wonder why don’t we have areas like this for retired people so people can meet up and socialise. The downside how long would vandals wreck it all?

Off to the train station soon, got a night trip up to Harbin where the ice festival is. Get there about 06:40 a short walk to the hotel but check in is not until the afternoon. We are here for 2 nights and it will be cold again around -16 C. We have the clothing so it is okay.

There are various prices to go the the Great Wall and different sections to visit. We were offered £90 driven in private car and 2 hours on the wall. We got a good deal £10 each picked up at the hotel there were 6 other people. They showed us a Jade Factory and then onto the Wall, Mutianyu location.We took the cable car up it was very impressive and the amazing thing not many people on the wall we took photos of no one around. We had seen photos taken in the summer time and you can not move so winter time is the time to visit here. The sections are steep and the steep height varies from little steps to Penny crawling up on the steps on her hands and knees or with my assistance. Most people were struggling to a degree and Penny did bloody well to get to from Watch Tower 15 up to #1 and then she returned to #6 where she descended down the pathway her choice and I carried on back to Watch tower #15 and I took the cable car I think Penny was annoyed her route was as long as mine. Some of the others did 15 to 20 basically it was left to right.

We purchased the T shirt each I climbed the Gt Wall should have been the Gt Wall fucked Penny. This morning she could not get out of bed her calf muscles were rock hard and aching. It was a great achievement -4C and the sweat was pouring off me, my thermals were wet through. We spent 4 hours on there and that was a a good amount of time. The bus took us back to the hotel and we collected our bags and headed off to the Howard Johnson Hotel. Where we had stayed the people were friendly but no one could speak English. The drains in the bathroom were smelling like a sewer not acceptable to us and not geared up for Europeans. In the HJ lovely big room no smells but very warm we tried to drop the temperature low would not work. Rang reception and all the could do was open the wind to our relief. I had done a lot of hand washing and in the morning it was all dried.

Penny was not in the best shape to do much so I went off and found the International Post Office which people were giving me the wrong directions, which was a bit annoying as I have the flu again. Got a quote to sent about 15kg parcel box, ship it back 3 months £52. So we organised our bags when I got back and it is amazing how much we bought which we have not used. Not worth bringing smart clothes. Penny’s 2 pair of boots a bunch of T shirts and some souvenirs and clothes. We will get a taxi to the place to post the gear at 09:00, get back to the hotel and we will put all the gear we need for 5 days away to Harbin and Shenyang into 1 bag and leave the other bag back at the hotel and we will pick it up after Shenyang as we are going through to Datong via Beijing.

Penny booked a visit to the theater to watch Chinese acrobatics. Got picked up by car and 30 minutes later we arrived. They have popcorn there so Penny needed some. The show last for an hour and it was amazing what they got up too. You could not take photos or videos during the performance. Penny was sat next to a biggish Eastern European woman and they were having elbow issues and Penny got really annoyed and told the woman stop being rude. I got up and told Penny to swap with me and I sat down, another woman said are you going to cause a fight I replied no. The woman did not fuck with me and Penny was happy. After the show driven back to the hotel, I am feeling shite with this cold again, hopefully sleep better tonight. We have a 21:21 train to Harbin tomorrow night sharing a 4 berth compartment, should be interesting. Got to check out at 12:00 so going to be a long day.

Got the metro out to the Summer Palace and walked around to the entrance. It cost more to this place compared to the Forbidden City and it was well worth it. Walked into the area and looked a various old Chinese building back in the days of Empress Cixi, the outside of the buildings the hand painting is so intricate and so colourful. Made our way out onto the lake area it was amazing covered in ice and people were riding on a variety of electric contraptions, ski seats using poles to move along the ice, families were enjoying themselves, great to see. We moved to the left and made our way around the big lake going over numerous bridges. The were numerous eating places dotted along the way sausages on a stick were very popular and Penny even enjoyed them. It was quite busy with people but was relaxing with some breath taking views. We stopped at a restaurant and had some lunch on Chinese river boat sat on the lake, was average. Then we made our way around to the Summer Palace and it is some hike to the top, Penny appreciated my assistance. We were allowed to enter the last stage to the Palace as it was closing time and they rushed us through and we did not have a chance to take any photos from the top. But overall the Summer Palace is a must to see and do in Beijing.

We are doing the Great Wall of China tomorrow morning 07:15 pick up get back at 16:30. We have decided to check out of the hotel tomorrow as it is not for us. The staff are very good but no one speaks English and we are doing translation on the I phones and some time very confusing. The smells from the bathroom drains is not pleasant at all, the room is not practical or comfortable the only mirror is covered up as you hang our jackets there. The hotel is not geared up for European travellers and the walls are very thin you hear noises easily. I have told them we are checking out in the morning. Originally the booking said check out up to 18:00 they said if you do we charge you 50%. So we will put the bags in storage and pick them up after the tour. Have booked into the Howard Johnson close to the Main Railway Station for 2 nights. We need to get Penny’s new reindeer boots some t shirts and few other things shipped back to the UK. We are over the 20 kg limit for the flights we have booked later on and when we reach warmer climates after Tibet and the Yangtze River cruise will will ditch our winter clothes.

Well the Chinese certain do not like Google, I am on Google chrome and when trying to find a site is comes back timed out. bloody frustrating. I get my Yahoo mail, booking.com and NZ herald, BBC, FB no luck at all. My Nord VPN is not giving me coverage at the moment. Penny using her Tablet can use Google so who knows what is going on. Not good for tourism when one needs access to research areas of the city to visit.

The hotel I chose to stay in was not my best pick, the desk people do not speak English having a frustrating time to ask questions using speech translation. We went to Tienanmen Square took the Metro which is 700m from the hotel once you get use to the tube lines it is quite easy to use. We had to queue up to go through security and show passport then we ventured on to the Square, this is where the small Chinese man confronted the tank. There were a lot of Chinese people there about 23 million people and about 1.3 billion people live in China, that is a lot of people. We got talking to a Chinese guy who was a tour guide we needed to find a bank that dealt with visa and master card, Penny wanted a sim card, we did some of the tour of the Forbidden City and got a running commentary, got the money and a sim card cost £25. Got the metro back to the hotel and dropped of some of our gear and went back down the road where we spotted a lot of people walking. It was a narrow street with shops either side with various kinds of merchandise and food places. Some of the food dishes looked interesting. We went into a bar restaurant and the rice was hot pork luke warm and the veges cold had been frozen. We will not visit that place again. Then Penny spotted a shop with souffles so we had a mango and strawberry was okay and then she spotted Spanish churros with ice cream and some chocolate on it where in Spain a little pot of warm chocolate to dip into it. Was okay and the first time Penny had tried it.

Found a place doing tours to the Great Wall wanting £69 for the 2 of us out tour man wanted £80 and an hour less on the wall. Penny found another tour site much cheaper waiting to hear back from them. Back in the hotel and more research for the great Wall trip and Summer Palace.

Up just after 04:00 knew the alarm was set for 05:45. Checked a few things on the internet regarding this trip. Taxi was waiting for us at 06:30 the hotel gave us a sandwich and small bottle of water. It was bloody cold as usual and more dusting of snow everywhere. Got to the station and made our way to the inside seating area, it was chaos and there were no message boards, like all railway stations in the world have. We went back outside in the cold and Penny looked after the bags and I eventually found out that our train was leaving from platform 3 so we had to go down and then up on the under pass. Found coach 5, in Mongolia on a Mongolian train they don’t check the passports. Found our compartment 3-4. Not like the Russian first class compartments, we have bunk beds a small table with a chair on the other side and a toilet we share with the other compartment. The toilet was full and blocked and the floor looked messy. Can not get our bags in the overhead compartment so the stewardess told me to put them in the next compartment as most of them are empty, very kind of her. Penny got her head down and we departed Ulaanbaatar as the sun was starting to rise.

This not a fast train and there are a lot of carriages. Seen some spectacular scenery vast plains and some hills, the occasional village. There is only a fence on each side of the rail track to keep the roaming stock off the track. Have seen yaks, cows, sheep, horses, goats and camels. Spotted a few herdsmen looking over their stock, some using a car or a bike as transport. The camels and some of the horses were wild. About 5km out of town or village you unfortunately see plastic bags hung up on the wire fencing, some paper and polystyrene not a pretty sight. Past an open cast coal mine and the tailing were higher than most of the hills I have seen today. Spotted coal delivered on a conveyor belt and stacked in big mounds the coal dust just darkened the area for a few kilometres. Spotted some wind farms and a small solar panel farm which was good to see. All the houses and yurts I have seen, have been burning coal to keep warm but it is certainly a major pollutant. Mongolia is such a big country and just over 3 million people live in Ulaanbaatar a majority of the population. Most of the cars we have seen are mainly silver and white not many coloured cars.

Makes you wonder what is the potential mineral wealth of this country, could they build new towns or cities more environmentally friendly and attract overseas investment and businesses? From what we experienced the people are friendly, English widely spoken and the cuisine is exciting far exceeded what I expected and it is cheap to eat out £10 for 2. Seeing thermal covers for cars and petrol pumps, very smart idea for all the people living in cold climates something to consider, don’t have to scrape the ice off the windows in the morning. They have to seriously tackle the pollution in UB, politicians talk about it but nothing seems to be happening. I feel this is going to require overseas expertise and investment.

Just after 20:30 we arrived at the Mongolian town close to the Chinese border they look at our passports and ask for the immigration form and soon we headed to China you could see the town with all the lights lit up. 21:00 we arrive the train with all its carriages is swarmed by immigration officials they give us forms to fill out would have been easier had we been given these earlier in the day by the train people, no that is too easy and then we are told get all our gear and get off the train, it is still very cold so we have all the thermals on and head to immigration and customs building. There are long queues and we are near the back but slowly I arrive at the immigration desk passport asked for and told to take my glasses off. This woman is looking at me deeply from all angles, the issue is that I have a beard and my passport is cleaned shaved. I tried to tell her and 3 other officers that I have grown the beard to keep my face warm for the extreme cold conditions we have experienced. After 3 minutes she is satisfied it is me and now it is finger print recognition and it askes for 4 fingers and I tell her I have only 3 which I put the left bunch on and then she peers over to see what one is missing and then we do the same for the right hand. Got over that hurdle and place the bags in a large x-ray machine and collected them. Waited for Penny and we were instructed to go upstairs in the waiting area. We leave our luggage down stairs in a secured area which are secured together and I am given 003 red wrist band. For about 3 hours we wait in this room in the mean time the train has disappeared and came back at 00:30 apparently China has different rail track gauge size so our train has to change the wheels to comply. I get speaking to a mature English couple from Shropshire they are doing a 23 day trip through Russia, Mongolia, China and including a week in Thailand, the lady said she want to go to Siberia the funny part is they never got off the train to experience it. They also met up with Ana, Penny’s new mate over a week ago. Just before 01:00 everyone is back on board. There is only 3 compartments used in our carriage and the bags are in the one next door, so I go and crash on the bottom bunk bed I am tired need a decent sleep.

Up at 07:30 welcome to China and we are going pass village and small towns and the houses look totally different from what we have seen in Russia and Mongolia. They are all made of brick most lived in and other unoccupied in different states of disrepair. Every bit of land has been used for planting vegetables and crops. They are into renewable energy wind farms appearing on the big hills and I have seen a lot of solar power farms. Seen a few coal powered stations smoke billowing in to the atmosphere, fly tipping of rubbish I have spotted, recycling does not appear a high priority. But I have seen so far it is a fascinating country. The cities we are passing through have a mixture of old and new apartment blocks a lot with solar panels on top of the buildings, more so than I have seen in developed countries. The train passed through a lot of tunnels going through these mountains part of the Himalayas, was annoying when seeing a good photo shot and then we were in the tunnel.

Got to Beijing at 14:35 found our way to the Ticket office for train journeys we have booked already. Was directed to counter #1 and queued and the lady checked the passports and I had the train confirmations five minutes later I had all the tickets printed out. I tried a Bank of China ATM but it would not accept Visa or Mastercard. Penny looked after the bags whilst I searched for a bank, the first one did not accept the cards and I was directed to another bank which I managed to draw some money out. Big walk back to Penny she was cold and had pins and needles in her feet. We made our way to the taxi rank the taxi people could not understand the hotel in English unfortunately I did not have the address in Chinese. A guy came and offered to help using his phone and transferring English into Chinese the 2^nd taxi driver new the address and this guy wanted 200 yuan about £25 quid I told him in uncertain terms to piss off and we departed the area I found a young Chinese guy who spoke a little English and he told the driver where we needed to go and it cost 30 yuan under £4. Got to the hotel it is small compared to the hotel room in UB. So it will be checking out the sites tomorrow.