The train to Beijing

The shiny new Z2 left Shanghai train station at 19:21 on it's 1450km, 12 hr journey to Beijing, with us happily settling in to our soft sleeper compartment:

We liked it: no longer in a shared dormitory; enough good food for two for about GBP1.50; all the hot water we could drink; and once the sun rose in the morning (it's getting light about 6am) great views of the flat, huge, Chinese countryside. We saw fields of corn, schoolchildren cycling in blue and white tracksuit uniforms, small flocks of sheep, a donkey, a quarry, lots and lots of sunflowers, and villages and towns all of whose houses faced the same way.

Beijing!

How lovely to be met by friendly faces at the station! Hongwei and Yujin brought us home to their neighbourhood near Yong He Temple. Our hotel occupies the bottom floors of a building shared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, for whom Yujin now works as director general (no less!) of their Centre for International Exchanges, is two minutes walk from our hosts' flat, and is right next door to the huge new building the Ministry will be moving into when it is completed next year.

Breakfast in a cafe round the corner: fried doughsticks (like savoury churros) with sweetened soya-milk, egg pancakes, pork chop and a bowl of soupy noodles. Then a quick visit to Yujin's office (he can't get at this website on the internet either) and off with Hongwei to our first real tourist must-sees of the whole trip - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace: finest collection of ancient buildings in all China. See the beautiful clay brick roofscape! Zoom in on the welcoming Starbucks!

Tried and failed to imagine the place when it was truly forbidden to non-members of the imperial court (for 500 years to 1911), the emperor's concubines spent their whole lives here, and latte was completely unavailable. The garden at the back was a relaxing place to end our visit and had more atmosphere, I thought:

Then home (chauffered by the Ministry!) to the hotel, off to McDonald's for a snack (sad but true), and then I escaped for a welcome snooze while Hongwei, Heather and the girls shopped for a couple of hours.

A good evening with friends

Yujin had to dine with the Minister, so we ate with Hongwei in a small room to ourselves at the restaurant underneath our bedrooms - so much delicious food! A Sichuan dish that was mostly chillies, from which chilles and peanuts were excavated to eat; asparagus with some bulb that Hongwei couldn't translate into English; a cold dish of wood-ear mushrooms with cucumber in a gorgeous garlic, ginger, sesame and chilli sauce; two kinds of fish, one very spicy; tofu; cold chicken; and two kinds of rice.

Later, Heather and I strolled and chatted with Yujin (dinner over) and Hongwei in the neighbouring park - the girls safely tucked up in their room. Groups of neighbours were playing music and dancing; couples cuddled; other people sat and watched goldfish in the pond; the occasional young policeman quietly available to stop any bad behaviour. A pleasantly cool evening, the wind making the weeping willows even more beautiful. The life of an ordinary Chinese director general seems very bearable on first inspection!

- Mark