The Middle Kingdom

I'm quickly stopping in an Internet cafe for an hour or so, so I've just enough time for a quick update, but no pictures this time. A lot also happened since my last post in Mongolia I shall have to recap some other time with pictures.

Essentially though I came down with what I suspect to be food poisoning while staying in the hotel in Mongolia. I was only supposed to be there overnight and I was to catch the last leg of the Trans-Siberian the next day; however I was far too sick to so I ended up staying in that hotel the rest of the day and the next (not eating any of the food, of course). I replaced the last leg of the train journey with a plane trip. It's now just after 6pm and I'm back on track. I've been up since 4am and essentially spent the entire day flying. I caught a plane from Ulan Bator to Beijing, the a plane from Beijing to Xiamen and then a plane from Xiamen to Wuyishan, where I am posting from now.

The Mongolian airport (named after Genghis Khan, of course) was pretty damn small but everything went well. I don't regret missing the last leg of the plane journey, because not only is the border crossing and customs on it a pain (I was warned of over 4 hour waits, much like the Mongolian-Russian border crossing) but I got to see the Great Wall of China from the sky in all its long, winding glory. I want to come back some day and actually walk along it rather than just observe from afar.

Anyway, landing in Beijing immigration took forever and left me with just under an hour to claim my luggage, get to where I needed to be for my next flight, check in and board the plane. My flight itinerary was in my backpack which I didn't fancy stopping to open up and check, but I knew I'd seen 'Terminal 1' printed a lot on it so I took a chance and headed for terminal 1. I soon found a tunnel with a sign on it, "10 minutes to Terminal 1" so after running down that I look around and can't find my flight number. I decided to finally take out my flight itinerary to check my flight number and make sure I'm where I'm supposed to be. So naturally I open up the itinerary and see every single flight I have leaves or enters from a 'Terminal 1' EXECPT the one I needed then, which left from Terminal 2. Where's Terminal 2? Oh wait, back at the start of that tunnel I just spent 10 minutes running down? Ugh.

Xiamen to Wuyishan was an uneventful flight but it was only 40 minutes anyway so nothing much was to be expected. However, when I described Genghis Khan Airport as small earlier I clearly didn't know about Wuyishan airport. It's definetely the most...rustic aiport I've ever flown into (and will fly out of) and definetely the new smallest. It has one runway, space for docking maybe 3 planes at once max and the baggage collection and airport exit are within the same 15m length hall.

After that though, I was finally in China proper instead of just ferrying about airports all day and this place is amazing, it's unlike anywhere else I've ever seen before. I've seen a man carrying around cagefuls of bunnies, a man cycling down the road with a kid facing him in the front basket (must be distracting), people sitting around tables outside shops playing Mah Jong, lots and lots of signs and posters I can't read...yup, I'm definetely in China. Almost immediately after getting out the taxi, I was greeted by a friendly 'Hello' and wave from some random Chinese stranger, so China's off to a good start in my books. Also a lot of staring from locals wandering around town, what with being caucasian and all but I quite like being the centre of attention here.

Right now I am just killing time with my guide in an Internet cafe waiting for a flight to come in at 10:30pm with 5 other Brits before a 4 hour car ride to Tanaing or something where I am going to be for the next 3 months. Hopefully I'll be able to update soon with stories and pictures or what I got up to between my last Mongolian update and now, but I don't know exactly when that will be. I just know right now I'd love a shower and sleep.