Tian'anmen Square, Beijing, China

A 28 hour train ride on what is known as a 'hard sleeper' got us to Beijing. A remarkably fun experience on the whole as we had heard it can be horrendous. Each bay of the compartment contains 6 bunk beds, 3 on each side. It was was not a bad journey and the time passed surprisingly quickly, sleeping, playing backgammon (Shesh Besh in Hebrew), writing postcards, and hanging out with our neighbours from Israel, Paz and Yifat. I brought out my Mah Jong set that I had bought in Yangshuo and proceeded to decipher the instructions. Suddenly, a bunch of little old ladies came out of the woodwork and promptly started to play with me. I think they would have prefered to push me out the way, but they were nice and tried to teach me how to say all the Numbers and Winds written on the tiles in Chinese, and then showed me how to play a game. It was very funny. Once in Beijing, we stayed in a little hutong (back alley) in Qianmen, very near to Tian'anmen Square. * Mush