But yes, China's border town Erlian was increadibly polished and rich. Food was so good compared to that in Mongolia! And people on the streets wouldn't necessarily want to rip me off and showed this lovely hospitality even it was just me buying a bottle of water. The same kind you get to know when travelling, and the kind I got so accustomed to in Russia.
I was somewhat shocked for China to seem to prosperous. Erlian looked like a strange European-Arabic mix to me being so new and recently built. Obviously there was lots of space for it as the place was in the middle of the Gobi desert. There were no slumms. The town ended with a recently built residential area. The place looked very different to anything I had seen in months.
As Gobi is known for its dinosaur bones and such stuff, there was a whole park of huge green statues of these creatures just en route out of the city. I was on a Chinese sleeper-bus! I was expecting something more platskart-style, something simple and not perhaps most comfy. Bus the bus, it was heaven. I hadn't slept much the two previous nights and the clean-smelling duvet and soft mattress was just what I was longing for. The bus had three rows of beds, fitting in total about 39 beds. It was built very economically and although I was a little larger than most of the travellers, I still managed to enjoy the ride. We got to Beijing four hours early. So we were there some time after one in the morning instead of five. I slept in the bus until it got light and it didn't seem to be a problem.
The morning in Beijing was beautiful, it was spring. A natural non-nervous rush was what it was, covering streets at 5.30 am. There were such wide areas for cyclists and motorbikes. Every once a while there are breakfast places, a few of them offered Beijing egg pancake called Jian Bing 煎饼. Well worth having! Mm! Costs only 2-5cny (1eur=8.3cny), too. You can see people exercising everywhere, singing, hitting trees and other things, it really relaxed me. I can see myself being 50 or 23 and doing these things as well.
I faced some heavy trouble finding a hostel. Some priceless girls and guys working at a McDonald's nearby let me use their iPhones to find a list of closest hostels in the neighborhood and scribble it down on the receipt paper as the one I was planning to go to was full. As usual to this trip of mine by this point, it worked out the best cos the hostel I found after walking a couple of times around to block, was the nicest one, I'm sure. Plus the cute guy at the till gave me a discount without me even intending to get one. I just presumed it was that price and apparently it was for me. And for my friend Melanie who joined me shortly! She had been relaxing in a town four hours from Beijing and as soon as I texted her, she hopped on a train and came to meet me and spend some quality time. We met in Yekaterinburg at Katya's hostel, then randomly again in Ulan-Ude and Ulan Bator. It was really nice, although we didn't travel together, it felt almost as if we were. Staying at the same hostels and sharing gossip and our experience was so enjoyable, very comforting at times. I really loved hanging out with her and spending the last days of this trip with her wondering on the streets of Beijing and eating lots of food. Here's a picture of her as a proper French nibbling on a baguette in Yekaterinburg and chilling out in a hostel in Beijing. Is that a tan, Mel?
A hutong district in the central Beijing, just by busy streets and the Forbidden City. Hutongs are area made up of narrow streets, usually having all kinds of stuff happening right just in front of the residences, some people fix things, others cook, there are small shops, cyclists cycling past shouting-singing a particular tune to their business... Houses are joint and normally have courtyards, sometimes tiny gardens. I didn't manage to visit one of those but this setback was softened by another jianbing pancake made by an enthusiastlic lady. I had met earlier that day and now she was on her way home, all instruments attached to a bike as usual. We both were very happy about this deal.
Hidden in the criss-cross of hutongs there was a lively vegetable market. It actually was a pretty colourful place countless the greenish pictures I took and uploaded here.
Among others there was an old man who was inspecting seaweed, which I identified to be kombu, probably, part of the kelp family, haidai or 海带 in Chinese, commonly used to make salads. He looked alike to my deceased granddad Rein. I bet grandpa would have had the same critical eye to this just like this Chinese man did, if had made it to this day thanks to tai chi, healthy eating and all the cycling.
nii äge ! :)
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