Hong Kong

China was a trip but they aren't so big on the internet cafes and so it was really hard to get on line. It goes without saying that Beijing has changed since I was there last in 1986. It is so modern and it has a SHOCKING number of bathrooms. This may not impress you so much but I think that Beijing has more bathrooms than India, Nepal and Mongolia combined. Our hotel was adorable (Adingminman neighborhood or something like that?) and it had a beautiful landscaped walking path that passed by it and went on for a least a mile or two. Older people would sit at tables and play dominoes, groups would do Tai Chi or fan dancing lessons, everyone would play with their precious one child and people would charmingly live outside. The air quality seemed fine after Kathmandu and people must get a good price for returned plastic bottles because there would literally be people waiting to take your water bottle out of your hand when you finished it. Next to no trash. China is at least paying lip service to going green and there were recycle bins everywhere, a focus on decreasing plastic bags, and all sorts of renewable energy things on the (weird government) news. Apparently the Gobi desert is advancing over a mile a year towards Beijing due to many things including overgrazing and poor treatment of the ecosystem that naturally holds back desertification, and that combined with the unimaginable damage they've done over the last 20 years has perhaps spurred some better behavior. The Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) is so amazing one could spend a week there; Mao's Mausoleum with the preserved husk of his body is as creepy as I remember. It's a little hard to stomach the near worship of a man who killed over 40 million of his own people in peace time, but Chinese people probably keep their thoughts private about him. We asked our Chinese friend in Kathmandu, GARY!, for how many generations his family had lived in their village and he replied that no one in China really knows their history because all records were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. Imagine destroying a country's history. Wild Swans is a great book to read about 20th century Chinese history. We saw another Chinese friend and her fiance there and they took us to a couple of lovely dinners and overall Beijing was interesting and friendly. After that we took the train for 24 hours to Hong Kong because we need to reset our 30-day visas to last us through Tibet. Hong Kong is fabulous and more fabulous. I live here part time in my fantasy world, actually (but I have a much different wardrobe). On Wednesday we take the 24 hour train back to Beijing, wait for a few hours, and then take a 12 hour overnight train to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta warriors. It's on our way to Tibet. We didn't plan our food correctly for the journey to Hong Kong and so were dependent on the very odd meals prepared by the dining car but we are going to be a traveling grocery store the the upcoming 36 hours on the train. There's a Marks and Spencers with a new food department calling our names! Today I had a much needed haircut and so things are pretty much fantastic. xoc

Tomorrow to Beijing

Check out Janice's blog BTW, she posted photos and I posted photos on Facebook. We've had a lot of fun in Mongolia and our friend is waiting for us in Beijing to show us around. Not a bad life! xoc