Onwards, to Mainland China!

Here is our cushy 2 berth cabin and one of the very strange warning signs.
They also had a warning in the train guide book about the toilets dropping right onto the tracks, so you need to be careful with keys/mobiles/wallets/etc., but they should have had a warning sign for using the squat toilet when it was raining outside (the wind brings the rain up through the hole...use your imagination!!! :)



We arrived safely in Beijing and found our way to the hotel...nice room, nice view, and a joystick to operate the faucet in the bathroom :)




After a fabulous night's sleep we headed out into the world to find the Trek office...on our way we saw some interesting things, like this scooter/rickshaw:


We found that Beijing truly is huge and ended up taking a bus instead of being able to walk to the Trek office, but we did find it!


We picked up the bikes and practically raced each other back to the hotel :) We did stop for a quick bite to eat at the Subway sandwich shop and we locked our bikes outside in the bike park (where they outclased all the other bikes! :)


and then went back to the hotel to fiddle with the bikes and set them up for our individual preferences. The people at the hotel didn't know what to do with the bikes when we arrived with them, but we asked if we could take them up to the room and they looked relieved that we had made such a good suggestion, so the bikes are staying with us :)


After we sorted the bikes we, of course, had to go for a ride :) We headed into town...




stopped for dinner and a beer (very well deserved! :)


and continued into the center




and on to Tian'anmen Square


Then we hammered it back to the hotel (even the electric bikes were working hard to keep up with us!) and crawled under the duvets for a well deserved night's rest!

Later!