China: there and back again


I went, I met a terracotta warrior (or three), and I came back.

Made lots of new friends - who saw me through and over lots of horrendous steps (thresh hold steps of possibly over a foot high in all temples, Forbidden City etc) And I'm still in one piece: thankfully.

Saw a frozen lake, and a small amount of lying snow, and was hot enough to be in a tee shirt - all at the same time. BeiJing pollution and traffic have to be experienced. Neither has anything on London.

As for their loos!! Heaven help anyone visiting for the Olympics!

Lots and lots of photos taken - though most of my new friends took lots more than I did on account of their having cameras which did things mine doesn't.

I think my most abiding memory has to be members of the railway staff on the train from BeiJing to Chengde (4.5 hours), having dispensed cups of tea or coffee, hawking goods to us though not our fellow travellers in our coach. They were a group of Chinese people and one or two of us did discover an English speaker with his little girl.

I promise I won't be top dog in April.

Sincerely chris
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Chris McMillan
http://www.chinavision.org.uk/
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