Not too much to report today. We checked out of the Fairmont
just before noon and a new guide called Tracey (don’t know what her Chinese
name is) collected us with her driver and took us to the high speed train
station for our transfer to Beijing. For some reason I don’t understand (I’ll
have to take it up with Trailfinders when we get back!) we were booked in
second class. Not only that, but we had aisle seats, which kind of defeated the
object of getting a train rather than a plane. We had wanted to see the Chinese
countryside go by, but we couldn’t see out of the windows very easily from
aisle seats. Sadly, even window seats wouldn‘t have afforded great views
because of the awful air pollution. I know I keep mentioning it, but it is
rather all-pervasive. After two or three hours of walking around you can almost
pick the particles out of your teeth, and the taste is vile. Anyway, we
averaged 305kph to Beijing, and I even managed an hour or so of shuteye, so not
too bad, especially considering the continuous fidgeting and general noisiness
of the Chinese passengers.
In Beijing, we were met by our latest guide, a lad called
Jack. His English is pretty good and he is enormously cheerful, bursting into
laughter at the slightest provocation! He told us quite early on that the
people of Beijing are called Beijingers (pronounced “bay gingers”) and he
thought this was so funny I wondered if he was going to wet himself!
He dropped us off at our hotel, the Peninsula, and we
rounded off the evening with a drink in the hotel bar and a very nice Cantonese
meal in one of the hotel restaurants.
Off to the Great Wall in the morning!
Jenny’s bit: Jack is
very nice, he also cracks up every time he mention Mr Lin’s (our driver’s name)
because he knows its a girl’s name in English. Jx
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