Ad-ed urbanism

Advertisement opportunities are exploited to the extreme in Beijing.
You take the metro, and the handle (the small flexible one that you
use while standing) is ad-ed, you grab a taxi and lcd screens are
running short tv ads on the back of the seats. It seems to us that
Chinese pushed the concept of influencing people's choices beyond what
we have in the west. JC and Marie

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Dumlings and steamed buns

We have found a heaven of dumplings, were they also serve delicous
steamed meat buns, Niuge Jitozi on Donghuangchenggen Beijie. Our
favourite dumplings are stuffed with duck or mutton with coriander. We
have had 20 dumplings each every morning since we arrived. That's a
total of half a kilo of dumplings per day - per person - each
weighting 0.05 g made of hetao dumpling flour and cocked to perfection
al dente. Marie

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Shopping Mecca

The Silk Street Market is a crazy place. This is the Mecca of cheap
copies of famous brands in Beijing. Up until now we were wondering
where all the tourists are in the city. Here! There are bus loads of
them... Clothes, bags, perls and jades filling up seven enormous
floors. The vendors are standing in narrow alleys grabbing your arm as
you pass by: 'one more jacket? a bag? need shirt?'. If you happen to
stop or even look at something, expect to be overwhelmed by offers
shouted at you from all angles. When you buy, you have to bargain
hard. Prices are negociated on a calculator (common denominator): you
type the price you want to pay and you may hear them say 'joke?' if
they think it is too low. You continue like this for a couple of
times, the vendor becomes emotional. Then the best thing to do is to
walk away; you can expect a huge drop in price in your first two
meters; you come back and make the deal (and realize how much margin
they thought to make on you ;-) ). After a 3h long walk in the
forbidden city, we stretch oursleves 3 more hours in this market.
Tonight we feel so tired we decided to postpone the Great Wall tour to
friday. JC and Marie

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Forbidden city

Le roi de soleil est cassé - Louis XIV's Versailles is nothing
compared to this. In the Forbidden city you can really die nicely
(xorosho omerat') as the Russians say, meaning that life is so
beautiful and fair you don't mind dying on the spot. Marie

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Cannot get enough of Chinese food

Now I don't have a choice anymore, I have to wear the turquoise dress
for Mia and John s wedding on 8 August.
I ve gained about five kilos on this trip, and most of it I've put on
since I entered China - like five days ago.
But I feel no shame. I could continue like this for the rest of my
life. In fact, I could move to China just for the food. Last night we
had another spree, vegetarian food. They even had vegetarian fish
(!?), but also served vegetarian chicken, beef, mutton, tutti, which
tasted better than the real thing. I cannot get enough of Chinese
food. Should I take a course in learning how to cook Chinese food?
It's seems like a life mission, since there is a never ending variaty
of dishes. Zhongwei said that we wouldn't get through all the dishes
even in a year because there are so many different local variaties of
the same dish. I don't mind staying here finding out. Marie

Hotel dream

Our hotel is a dream. Flowers and trees in the patio and friendly
smiling people. And the room. It's quiet and has red anique-looking
furniters. The bathroom is in black ceramic with a hand painted
porcelin sink, and lots of hot water. We are approx. 100m from the
Forbidden city. I feel so grateful for this unexpected luxury. Marie

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Developed country

There are a lot of construction going on everywhere we look, along the
highway, in the city and in the country side. "I guess that's why they
call us a developing country?" Zhongwei says. What is a developing
country anyways? Aren't we alway in development? It seems very
developed to me here. All the roads are straight. No curves, even on
the highway. The same goes for the railway. If there is a mountain in
the way they just make a million of small tunnels. Chinese people like
straight roads Zhongwei tell us. In all that they decide to undertake
they carry out with will power and discipline. Take education for
example. It's very cometetive and you have to be the best to go to
university. Only 40 of 100 score high enough on the national entrance
test for university. Then Chinese have a total of seven years for a
master's degree. It takes a lot of discipline and development to get
there, I think. Marie

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Yellow sea

"The yellow sea yellow sea, it's so yellow you go
crasy..."Jean-Christophe composed and sang in a country melody during
our half hour walk to, that's right,the Yellow sea. However it's not
yellow, rather bronish and fairly cold. "I didn't go 133 hours on a
train not to swim" JC said, so he swam. I didn't feel like undressing
into my scimpy bikini since all women on this crowded beach wore
swimming suits with legs or skirts. We are already attracting a lot of
curious looks as it is. And also, I never did like cold water. Marie

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Small Wedding ceremony

Today at 12 was the celebration of Zhongwei and Zhanyu's wedding!
Actually it was their second party; they had a first one in Zhanyu's
hometown some weeks ago. The arrival of the bride and groom was
welcomed by fireworks so loud and smoky that we felt like on a battle
field... After that, they undertook many traditional rituals such as
lighting candles together, thanking the parents or filling up with
champagne a whole pyramid of glasses. All accompanied by music. And
lots of pictures. Instead of throwing the wedding bouquet to the
singles among the guests the couple invited us on stage and asked if
Marie wanted to accept it. She was very honored and of course happily
did. After the ceremoney the bride and groom went around thank you
toasting with all 300 guests together with their parents. But that's
really nothing compared to the over 60 tables (600 guests) they had to
drink with on their first wedding. As usual, the food was fantastic
and abundant, we are really having a blast with food in China!
Congratulations for a magnificent ceremony, we wish you all the best
on your journey in life together. JC and Marie

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Chinese hospitality

We had so been looking forward to Chinese food, and today we had
plenty. Breakfast at 10 then two hours later 16 different dishes for
lunch - mainly seafood since Zhongwei's hometown is located where the
Yellow sea meets the Bohai sea. After a beautiful excursion to the 5A
ranked (same as five star restaurant but for historical sights)
Penglai pavillion, the Dragon king's temple, we had a typical "light"
Chinese dinner with vegetables and soup. And lots of deep fried
chicken in sweet and sour sauce. Only 10 dishes topped by dumplings
and rice soup. We are now digesting while watching a Jackie Chan
movie. All blood in our stomachs. Marie and JC

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Playing cards with audience

We just have been playing foul (cards game) with a cheerful audience,
namely a drunk man and his friend. These two have been trying to
figure out the rules of the game and even coach us by looking at both
our hands and pointing at cards... The whole situation was quite funny
for we could not communicate, at all! ;-) JC Marie

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Chinese standards

It was so nice to meet Qiang, someone we knew on the other side of the
World. He came to meet us at the Beijing Railway Station to give us
the tickets for our next and last journey to Yantai where we will
attend Zhongwei and Zhanyu's wedding. Qiang looked at the ticket, and
said smiling 'this is a slow train'. But in fact, this is the best
train we have ever been on during this trip on all aspects. Air
conditionning (so nice!). Fast speed compared to the trans-mongolian.
Travelling in China is luxurious! The compartments are spacious even
tough they fit 6 people sleeping and there are proper washing stations
with lots of water, and Chinese radio emissions. JC and Marie

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On the rail again

It's 39 degrees on board and we cannot open the window in our cabin.
So JC went to ask the Chinese host if he could help us open it. He
looked at his colleague and than back at JC and said drily "no good".
Marie

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Changing wheels!!

Believe it or not, we are currently undergoing a change of the wheels
of our train... In fact, Mongolians and Chinese have different
standards, so they need to do a pit stop in between! There is some
sort of large garage where the entire train can fit, and then it is
almost as when we change the tyres of cars, they just lift the whole
thing! Crazy. JC

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Data coverage

Hurray, we just got into China and we have access to the internet
again, let's rock. JC

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Freedom in its simplest form

Just imagine: galloping in the endless steppes of the pre-Gobi desert.
I can hardly imagine something better... When we did that this morning,
I felt like a cow-bow from the far west! The faster you go the better, it
really feels like you are the king of the World, just great! JC

Rain fantastic

Our caravan guide came to us this morning and said "horse ready". But
the rain was washing down and the sky in fireworks. So as a sound
westerner I asked him if we shouldn't wait for the rain to pass.
"Rain fantastic", he replied and looked at me in religous conviction. Marie

Desert mint

When you step on the desert grass or flowers most of them release
a scent of mint. Opening the door in the morning washes a wave of
mint to bed. Marie

Compassionate action is...

when our caravan guide takes us on a detour to see an eagle nest
even though we are almost home and we are way past the hour.

when the ger camp owner proposes to take us by car, for free, to
see a Nadaam (small horse race), since we missed the big one. She
will prepare a picnic and have the car take us directly from there
to UB the same afternoon.

when the ger chef and her daughter come with tea and cockies as
the rain is pouring down for hours confining us to the ger circle -
actually one sqm bigger than our appartment at home! Marie

Why do Mongolian men have bare stomachs?

Today it's so hot that you can only retain your energy by being completely
still. We are sweating like pigs with hot tea and soup - the only way to cool
down your body, Sasha and JC concluded already in Moscow. Although it
doesn't feel like it while having the infusion. After half a soup JC takes the
long end of his t-shirt and puts it behind his neck, leaving his stomach and
chest bare. And that's when he realized that answer to the question he has
been asking himself all along the trip "why do all Mongolian men show their
stomachs?" Marie