Duck Soup

We leave for Xian at 5:30 pm today (24th) for the over night trip to Xian, 1300 kms southwest of here. Hard sleeper at $38 per ticket. There are things to see in between, but the place is so huge and rich in history and relics you can't see it all, so we'll pursue the Tibet option in Xian and focus our remaining time in China in the south west.

It rained hard two nights ago (first rain we've seen) and when we woke, the smog that we assumed was permanent, was gone. There are mountains around this city!! Feet are suffering from pounding the pavements. Saw the pandas at the zoo (watching the Chinese families with their one child was the real interest), walked the hutongs, went to the opera, more Tiannamen square etc

Had the melt in your mouth Peking duck at a classy place famed for the preparation. The elegant staff make quite a ritual of the carving at your table, but when they just left us with slices of meat and walked away with the carcass I thought Joan was going to tackle the cart to retrieve her duck bones. The happy ending is that meal came with duck soup. Joan said it was almost as good as the soup Lorraine makes at Sandy Island.

Found the 35 cent beer place and then the 15 cent beer place (for the big 700ml bottle!!) Now we are starting to hone our backpacking skills!

The Great Wall

Message: October 19, 2006We've been trying to post to the blog but, like a lot of communication efforts here, real frustration. Blogspot.com instructions are pretty much all in Chinese and when you hit the enter button you don't really know what you've done, send, delete ?????? I think I managed one post from Shanghai, and deleted my post from Beijng, not to be recovered. So we'll quit with the blog until we can figure out how to get English instructions and some reliability. I'll email to this list and please pass on our messages to any that may be interested. Anyway we are fine and having lots of fun and adventures. Hiked and scrambled 11 kms of the Great Wall yesterday and worked up quite a thirst what between the walk and evading the hawkers. When we refused to buy from a persistent entrepreneur, Joan thought the guy called me a "Mongolian farmer" and to go home. As it turned out, most of the hundred or so that approached us claimed to be poor Mongolian farmers who needed the money to go home. Satisfied our thirst and hunger last night in numerous watering holes here in the Sanlutin (embassy) neigbourhood. (pints of draft for $2) Staying in a small guesthouse ($22/night, free breakfast and laundry, cheap internet) Been here four days and will keep trying to see the big sights. Away from the monster boulevards and traffic, the back streets are are quiet and treelined and home to all kinds of little shops and cafes selling the whole range of international food and consumer goods and services (including the very top end clothes, jewelry and electronics) Lots of evidence of dictatorship here, not much evidence of communism. We'll probably start heading south within a week. Trying to get info on the new rail trip to Tibet (line opened July). It's proving very difficult to get good info on permits, availability, costs for Tibet , but we now believe we can get on the train (without permits) in Xian about 1200km south of here. The only pressurized train cars in the world take you over a few mountain passes at near 16000 ft.