Endless Chinatowns

In balmy Beijing now, and wearing a couple less layers now, so feeling less like Michellin Men. We spent the train ride memorising the phrases for 'what's that called' and 'we'll have two of these', so were all ready for the street stalls selling such things as baked sweet potatoes, pork buns and fruit in these streets which look like all the Chinatowns of the world have joined together.

We spent much of yesterday staring at the vast, flat, gravelly expanses of the Gobi Desert from the train, and spotting antelopes and two humped camels. Waking up this morning the view was unmistakably of China, with distinctive buildings, clay huts, the Great Wall and air pollution.

Nicholas particularly wants to mention how interesting the bogey changing process was at the Mongolia/ China border, where the train is elevated and the wheels changed to fit the narrower guage tracks used in China.

Arriving this afternoon, we took a walk to Tiananmen Square where the Olympic clock can be seen counting down the next 952 days, and Mao still stares out over the shoulders of the young innocent faces of the soldiers on guard.