Day 47 June 6 2013 Today, plus a bit of history and customs The lady of the house had made breakfast consisting of a sort of fried egg or was it a cheese filled pancake? to be put on my slice of bread. Then the master of the house joined me for a while sharing the teapot while I fixed their electric clock. His wife told me that he had been a doctor all of his life and his hobby had been archeology. As soon as I said that that was interesting (and I meant it) h...

Day 46 5 June 4 2013 Erlian (Mongolian border)- Ulaan Bataar Mongolia Someone tapped me on the hand. I woke up and was greeted by a young woman in an impeccable blue uniform who said: "May I have you passport sir?" The train had stopped at Dzamyn Ude, about 2 hours inside Mongolia. Dzamyn Ude is the first town after crossing the border from China and is the place where passports are checked. I had read that they only checked the luggage of Chinese or Mongolian...

Day 45 June 4 2013 The Bogie men Beijing- Erlian (Mongolian Border) Although a lot has happened today I feel there is not much to tell when I sit down and write this down. By 6 am I had left the hostel and travelled to Beijing's main railway station. Al went smooth as there were not that many people about. The square in front of the main railway station is massive. I had the feeling that many people had camped outside to get onto early domestic trains. As wit...

Day 44 June 3 2013 Lonely Planet No idea why they call the series of Books " Lonely Planet”, especially the China edition as "Lonely is a term which is difficult to use in China. Beijing being is a city of about 16 million people I have been told and China in general with a population of 1.3 billion and counting, is definitely not a Lonely Planet here. I will come back to the Lonely Planet later. This morning I had a chance to try out the Beijing unde...

Day 43 2 June 2013 The Great Wall The best way to visit some places is to book a tour. Just relax and enjoy the ride. This one included breakfast and lunch as well. A mini bus picked two other travelers and me up at 8 am for the two hour drive to Mutianyu, north of Beijing. The Chinese wall was built over two thousand years ago and runs from Liaoning province all the way to the Goby dessert. They actually started the build the wall in sections around 220 BC O...