china in short

anding in china was rather severe. Almost immediately after we left the aircraft we were startled by a poster that welcomed us to china with the slogan one child is the only responsible answer. Later we caught a bus to the city.. were hastled by hotel sharks… finally find an international youth hostel…eat amazing food and love the fact that you get tea immediately as you sit down…contemplating whether to eat scorpion or silk worm… getting lost in wonder within the walls of the forbidden city… feeling a little saddened at tianamen square… bustling through the markets buying silk for friends and souveniers for ourselves.. managing to go the wrong way on the Beijing subway ! duh !…walking around the lake at the summer palace and watching sunset while smoking clove cigarettes from the store between shibuya and harajuku…shedding tears for japan… meeting mike who would save our time in china by speaking mandarin… getting him addicted to cigarettes after two days of quitting… renting a bus to the great wall of china.. spending hours walking in simatai and mutianyu… getting back to town and arguing about the price for the van… mike got abused by a seventy year old woman, he retaliated, we payed, they grumbled, we left… the subway sandwich that we ate that morning powered our thighs up the walls great paths,…then taking the train to taishan, me and mike being the only ones to climb the 6600 steps to the top, drank a quick beer and ran all the way down, amazing place, then caught a hard seater train for 17 hours to xian where we experienced the terracotta army in all their splendour… ate snake in quelin.. relaxed in yungshou while cycling through the majestic natureand finding out that drifters restaurant served hoegaarden !!…climbed moon hill and ran away from the sellars who wanted money… caught a bus to Guangzhou which was filled with cockroaches and other unpleasantries.. hated the city but managed to cause a scene when I sold my PIA blanket since we were heading south and didn’t need it, I got ten yuan for it and bought a red bull !..caught a night bus to hong kong… stayed in chunking mansions soaked to the bone from the rain… rented a small shitty apartment with hotshowers….went out searching for food at night… sandwiches.. next day walking to times square and all over… found a store that sold salt and vinegar chips and cider so I obviously bought some and sat on walkway between two giant office buildings and devoured something I had not eaten for months… spent the next day riding subways and checking air fares to Bangkok, found a deal, booked, jan and sarahs visa failed, they got stuck, fredde and I had enough cash so we booked, went home to a depressed jan and sarah, I walked to 7.11 and got a 6 pack of coronas to sweep away the regret and we sat in our small dirty apartment for the remainder of the evening, eat ing sandiwiches and drinking ice cold corona … next morning we said farewell to mike and jan and sarah and flew to Thailand after seeing the most impressive airport in the world, the train ride to it was also remarkable.