On the train, somewhere between Beijing and the Mongolia border. Wednesday March 24. 2010

Our final day in Beijing (Tuesday 23) was very relaxing. We had an earlier start than usual (9am), and walked to the Beijing Police Museum, in the Former Foreign Legation quarter east of Tianamen Square. The area itself was lovely - big buildings and and churches the legacy of foreign governments and their interests in Beijing. The Police Museum - free thanks to our out of date student cards - was pretty funny. A police museum in a police state was bound to be full of propaganda, and it didn't disappoint. We learnt how corrupt and unjust the force was, and how likeable and friendly they all are now! There were several murder and robbery cases displayed in detail ("and these are the sneakers the criminal tried to run away in") but alot of the info was only in Chinese. They had loads f badges and photos of old policemen, a 'martyrs wall' for officers killed on the job, and heaps of guns on display. Fittingly, there were almost as many un-smiling security guards as there were visitors.
We got some emergency US dollars for the rest of the trip, helping finance the Bank of China with a $30 fee. Then we went to Wangfujing Snack street for a feed. Still not sure what exactly we ate, but we steered clear of the still-moving scorpian skewers, cockroaches, squid, searhorses, starfish, lizards, gizards and goo.
It was lvoely weather, blue sky after the massive dust storm. Did some serious people watching (or were they watching us?) and played some Time Crises in a Sega Arcade - we make a good combat team. Had a bit of a sunbake and read outside the Egg and stocked up on pot noodles and snacks for our train trip.
We met a French couple at the hostel, Charlotte and Remi, who had just done the Trans-Mongolian and just got to Beijing from Ulan Bataar. They told us about the ger tours they did, and how cool our hostel is, which heartened us for the next stage of the journey. Because it's still so cold, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get out of UB and into the countryside. But apparently the family that runs the Golden Gobi hostel can organise tours and tickets and everything!
Today we left ou hostel at 6am, and rolled out of Beijing Railway station at 7.47am. The train is lovely - our compartment has four sleepers, and so far we have it to ourselves. There's a fold out table and plenty of storage space, and bedlamps that work! We got free lunch and dinner in the dining cart - the first of much meatballs or dubious origin and potatoes. To be fair, we had been snacking all day. The train seems pretty empty. We saw a beautiful sunset over a windfarm and powerlines, and our first star, maybe planet, for two weeks. The trip out of the city was single-story ramshackle town houses, then massive apartment blocks, seemingly made out of lego. Once in the country side, the countryside same in - dust through the cracks and windows. The landscape is extremely dry and arid - half the soil landed in Beijing. There's rows of tiny, maybe dead, trees and shrubs - apparently the government is paying farmers to plant trees in order to prevent the desert creeping up to Beijing.
At midnight (it's now 8pm), we say so long to China, wait three hours and the border crossing, then hello Mongolia!