Feeling particularity fresh today considering what I went through yesterday. Had a bit of a lie in though, not rising until 10. I am planning to cycle the city wall today with Yolanda and Catherine, I must be mad attempting that after my climb yesterday, especially as it is 13k perimeter. The girls meet me at the hostel at 1.30 and we head to try and get me a train ticket. It will be much easier with someone who speaks Chinese rather than me bumbling my way through. So we go to a little ticket booth that is just round the corner from the hostel. Of course we have to join a queue, and when we get to the window Catherine asks for the ticket for me, there is one available tomorrow, without really thinking I agree to it and buy the ticket. As we are walking away from the booth I am thinking that my train is at 1pm, and it is late today. So if i get the train I will not have time to go and see the terracotta warriors. I'm perplexed. What to do? We end up joining the queue again for me to get a refund, but when we get to the booth we are told that we can not get a refund here and we have to go to the station. I just accept that I am not going to get to see the warriors.
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We go for some lunch. I tell the girls just to take me somewhere that they would go to eat, and then just to order what they would normally get. So out comes some cold noodles in a spicy sauce, sweet soup which was a rice soup with Chinese dates and grapes in it, interesting, spring rolls with meat in them and bean jelly. I have no idea what that was, bit bland. It was a great lunch, lots of different flavours and not somewhere that I would have found on my own. I love having my guides. Catherine announces in the middle of lunch that she has an uncle that works in the train station and that he maybe able to help me out. Turns out, as is often the case, that all the hard sleeper seats are sold out, but there are always a few kept over for people who work in the station. So from what I gather I should be able to get a hard sleeper for later in the week from Catherine's uncle. If he can't he will give me a hard seat ticket, then one of his friends will find me on the train, where I will give him some money in exchange for a hard sleeper ticket! Now, this is sounding awfully dodgy to me, I don't fancy a hard seat for 15 hours, but is it worth the risk to give me a few more days and allow me to see the warriors. I decide it is so Catherine makes arrangements. After lunch we go in search of trying to get me my bag, at a good price of course. We trail through the streets looking at various bags, nothing really takes my fancy. So it is on to the wall! We head to the south gate because it is the one that stays open the longest. I fancy a coffee in the courtyard before we get down to cycling, while I get a coffee there is a show in the courtyard. People dressed up as guards, running around with spears and beating big drums. It's a good atmosphere. I ask the girls about chicken feet. I want to know what the story is. They tell me it's totally normal, that everyone in China eats chicken feet, and that you can get them in a variety of ways. I tell them I think it's strange but that I want to try them, so maybe later in the week. Bike rental is 40 for 100mins, which should be plenty of time. As we are about to get the bikes Yolanda drops the bomb shell, she doesn't know how to ride a bike?! Apparently she hasn't been on a bike in over 10 years, so she get one and tries to ride it. I end up running along beside her pushing her so that she can get her feet on the pedals. After a few tries she is off, though not feeling particularly confident. It was so funny watching her panic as she had to turn a corner or go up a ramp. I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was funny, who doesn't know how to ride a bike?
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The wall is not a smooth surface, just cobbles, but some are missing and some are depressed so it made for a bumpy ride, at least the bikes had suspension, though it still felt like I was on a vibrating platform. The weather is again overcast today so there is not the great views I had hoped for, but it is still great to get out on a bike for a while and the wall is lovely. With guard towers all the way around and larger turrets at the corners. There are quite a few people with the same idea of biking round the walls, plenty of traffic to contend with. There are part of the wall where you need to cycle up a ramp to the towers, the girls keep getting off their bikes and wheeling them up these, with a bit of encouragement, by the end they are both cycling like pros. We got to the wall quite late and so it actually get dark while we are half way round. This was just what I wanted because last night when I was coming home on the bus I saw the wall all lit up and it looked cracker. It's just a pity I don't have my proper camera with me, the iPhone will have to do. We are not maintaining a good speed, and after a quick check of the watch it is clear that we need to pick the pace up. It was difficult to get these girls in gear, I think they were wrecked, but we got back just in time.
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We go out for dinner after the wall, again a local place. It only serves one dish, a spicy hot noodle soup. You also get a bowl of noodle water to drink after, ohhhh yummy!! This dish is hot, that is what I have noticed, Chinese eat a lot more spicy dishes than I had thought. I knew they liked spicy, just not this much. After dinner we go for a coffee, and get to walk past the stinky tofu stands. It is not a good smell. So we get to this place, but they only have coffee in a tin, I say that's fine. What I wasn't prepared for was the heaps of sugar that was in it. Super sweet. Aww well, I'll drink it anyway. The girls went for milky tea. When it arrived it was in a cardboard cup, they had a spoon and a straw. I'm just about to ask what the spoon is for when I see Catherine suck some black thing through her straw?!?! What the?! Yolanda opens her cup and shows me what is inside. So there is milky sweet tea, fair enough. Black current jelly??? Peanuts??? And cashew nuts??? Of course! What else would you put in your tea? Apparently there is a name for it, so it must be popular enough! I just don't know how this would ever have been conceived. They offer me to try, unfortunately I'm sick and so I can't, what a shame. After coffee the girls head home and I head back to the hostel.
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I get chatting to the Chinese guy in my room, really poor English, but we get a pint anyway. At one point he gets so frustrated at his English that he gets one of the guys from the hostel to talk to me. We get chatting and the Chinese guy goes to bed. I had noticed that when Chinese people txt they use the same letters we do, then they pick symbols. This guy, Michael tells me that when they txt they spell it how they would pronounce it, then that brings up symbols for them to pick from. Fascinating stuff. As the bar clears we are the only two left. We also talk about how kids learn Chinese and how it is such a tonal language, where you can say 'ma' in 4 different ways to mean 4 different things. I steer the conversation to how he feels about his country, being a young educated man. He says that it is difficult to find the truth because of what the government constrains, and the the cultural revolution of western ideas is eroding modern China. I tend to agree, perhaps that is why the government tries to control it. We sit chatting till 4am, and I'm supposed to be doing the terracotta warriors tomorrow, looks like I'll be tired.