What an amazing country! I arrived through Beijing without a drama, and what an nice change to have someone to pick me up at the airport! Many thanks to the Beijing crew (Royce, Kate, George, and Jason :) Managed to find my way about the city and to the Mongolian embassy by bicycle with help along the way from Local real estate agents, Blood bank staff and the local TV media! Unfortunantly made it to the embassy on my first attempt a little too late. Never mind, i have discovered that persistance is the key when dealing with beuarocracy...

The Kazakh visa i discovered will have to wait until i get to Ulaanbataar in Mongolia as the dates will not suit my travel plans if obtained earlier.

So the highlights of my time in China so far would have to be riding through the semi chaotic traffic while listening to hilltop hoods ( and having people crash into me), eating the fantastic and cheap food (and not getting sick), meeting many amazingly helpful people, visting museums that are propagando temples to communism, climbing 2000m high mountains for views of the smog, and putting local peoples concern to rest that i will in fact be ok travelling to strange places, without speaking chinese, without a map, without a guide book, without anwhere to stay, and without in fact even knowing exactly what it is i want to see..... There always seems to be something at the end of the line :)

My time in china is not yet over so i will be updating this posting as disasters unfold. Stay tuned...