Saturday 26 September

Rock hard bed wasn't so great two nights in a row. There are sounds of firecrackers going off at intervals. I wonder if it's the beginning of the public holiday season. Eventually we get up and have something to eat, pack our things and leave for the day. I just hope we can find the manger to let us back in later! We walk toward the little wild goose pagoda, on the way we see road rage. A man raging at a taxi driver and this holding up the traffic himself. The traffic is always beeping their horns it's tiresome and annoying. But I'm surprised we haven't seen more accidents! It's crazy. Lots of bicycles and scooters too. The only thing is, with beeping the horn SO MUCH, ppl stop paying much attention to it, so THAT becomes an issue.
It costs to get into the pagoda, so we decide to skip it. We take a photo from the street. On the bus I saw the wall and the beautiful park along the river so we head there and it is very beautiful! It even has rules! One thing I do like about china is it's nice gardens. Not a lot of flowers but very pleasing and peaceful. They also seem to play music from hidden speakers. It's an odd but nice thing.
Everything in main places is pretty clean from debris and rubbish. You will always see someone sweeping up streets, paths and stairs.
We want to check out the wall of the city, but when we finally make our way there, there is an expensive ticket price so we don't go. We sit in the shade awhile. We go back to walk along the channel park but it too only lasts the block. Clean, free and regular public toilets are a bonus here! I hated paying for dirty toilets in South America! We head toward the drum tower then walk down a snack street full of ppl and venders.
I'm getting pretty tired, but we keep walking around with rests. Today does seem to be a special day and there are specials, displays and we find the remains of fire crackers. While we are resting police/security are moving all the street vendors from one place and they are all trying to move in by us, the they come along and send them all packing. We see a square and the bell and drum towers again. We see a guy with his new iPhone 6s plus walking along with it's box. It seems to be a thing here for ladies to wear pantyhose socks even if their shoes are pumps and they aren't wearing long pants! It looks strange, that's why I noticed it! Eventually we head back to collect our bags and walk past the Prada and Gucci stores. The manager is smoking outside with his mates but comes up with us and unlocks the door. There is a tiny orange and white kitten hiding under the security guards box. It's hair is all scruffy and dirty. I wonder how old it is. It looks only a few weeks! We catch the bus and head to the bus station. It's packed crazy! Malcolm gets our prebooked tickets printed while I wait with our things. Then we go in through check and security. Our train hasn't been allocated a platform yet (well, it's not leaving for hours!) so we sit on the ground and enjoy dinner. It's not really enough after a day of not much food and lots of walking. But is sure better than nothing.
We see lots of ppl carrying decorative thin bags containing boxes of some sort (they look like gift boxes or fancy store boxes). We finally figure they must have food in them as we see some cakes advertised in them on a sign. Lots of ppl carry obvious boxes of food or drink too. Often apples, kiwi fruit, nashi pears or grapes.
Lots of ppl stare at us. What should we do? Stare back? Smile? Glance away so they can continue staring? It's funny being the odd ones out! After sabbath Malcolm buys me some good from a vendor selling rice, potatoes, tofu, seaweed and cabbage. Helps fill the gap! It's amazing how much you can miss certain foods when you can't have them!
At last our gate is open and it's chaos so we wait awhile. It's still so busy when we get through. 4 lanes merging through 1 stair case. Then a long walk to carriage 3 from 15! I run and I still get on after the whistle. Malcolm had to get on the carriage behind and walk through. Right on top. Level 3 bunk. Malcolm is on the middle one, but he switches with a Chinese lady to be on top like me. Even though it means less space. You can't sit up straight! Oh well, lying down is fine till lunch time tomorrow.