Friday 25 September

We get up early. I slept well on the very hard bed. It's difficult to wake. We take the subway to the north station. That's easy. Trying to get tickets to the mountain, that's hard. The machines English button is disconnected and the ticket lady speaks virtually no English. The translation app is only helpful to a point as with no wifi/data there is no translation of exactly what we want, and only set phrases with a few changeable options. We are about to give up, but I see a picture of the mountain with it's Chinese name and we are able to buy tickets with the use of the app and the photo. Yay! I hope it's worth it! Malcolm goes off to find an ATM while I wait with the bag. He didn't find one that worked so we go through security and wait by our gate. We have something to eat while we wait.
Some things I noticed about china:
1. Not everyone is small or tiny. There are lots of overweight adults and children. All the pictures/paintings of emperors seem to be quite robust. Not slim and thin.
2. China isn't really very cheap. Costs seem about the same/a little bit cheaper overall. It all seems relative. ( only very few countries have been very cheap for us so far)
3. Smoking and spitting are very popular. But oh so gross. As is toileting children anywhere. ( lots of small children have splits in their pants for easy access for toileting often bare bums and no nappies).

The train goes very fast 250-310km/hr! But surprisingly the scenery just passes by peaceably. It doesn't feel fast from the inside. At our stop there are lots of ppl trying to sell as things and offer us taxis. But we know there is a free bus. Malcolm keeps looking for an ATM but finds none. We have to wait awhile in the bus before it leaves and we meet an American girl who has been working here teaching English. She's on holiday then heading to Taiwan. Once at the mountain entrance there is an ATM! Yay. We need it too. We have to buy about 5 tickets each. 1 for park, 1 for bus in, 1 chairlift in, 1 chairlift out, 1 bus out. We spend the rest of the climbing up mountains. Namely stairs. It's so beautiful. Breathtaking. It's also a not smoggy which is sad. We do the crazy plank walk out on the cliff face. It's so slow because there are so many ppl doing it and it eats up our time. We get up all 5 peaks and down the 20min chairlift and to the train station by taxi just in time to check in for the train. A busy day!! The fast train is fast and we catch the metro back close to where we are staying. We buy food for dinner - spicy noodles and spicy soup and get some supplies for the weekend. It's so nice to be able to rest at the apartment, even though it's not very nice at all! The bed isn't much softer than the floor and the blankets smell. The bathroom is dirty and and 'all in together' room with a shower head hanging off the wall opposite the toilet which is next to a washing machine. All seem to drain through a drain in the floor. It also seems be be a storage area for cleaning materials. Eek!
Despite all this, it's a place to rest and the internet is good.
Just as we are about to get into bed there is a knock at the door. Two men (one the owner) wants to take away a table from the corner. We ask about checking out and leaving our bags. Good night!