Woke up very excited this morning as our students have exams for the next 3 days and therefore I get some time off! Got up early and caught the bus to Beijing, then headed to the bookstore to try and pick up a lonely planet guide to South East Asia. I could get every country going, except unfortuantely for South East Asia or surprisingly, China. I still had an hour before my train and so as we didn't really trust the train Hannah and myself decided to treat ourselves to a Subway sandwich. I then left Hannah who was off to Shenyang and caught my train to Datong. The train was not up to the standard of the one we arrived in Beijing on, but it wasn't bad for the price. I had a hard seat, but it wasn't too uncomfortable for at least the first 2 hours! The journey was actually fine - I felt I should have brought some more food as everyone else seemed to have massive picnics, but other than the smoking in the carriage (it is supposed to be non smoking) it was quite comfortable. We arrived at Datong on schedule 6 hours later and I managed to find the CITS office pretty quickly. They were really friendly and sorted out my tour, my hostel and my return train ticket very quickly and painlessly. I decided since I have the time, to spend 2 nights here. Checked in at the hostel, and then went out to look around the area. The train station and hostel are about 3 km outside of the city centre, but even so there were plenty of places to eat and I stopped at a very Chinese looking place for some stewed aubergine, rice and beer. Went back to the hostel and chatted with the other people sharing my dorm - a Finnish couple and an Australian bloke, then had an early night.