We arrived in Beijing today after a hellish train ride from UB. Normally, getting on a train to travel is as relaxing as can be, but yesterday was incredibly hot, and it was not possible to keep the windows open because everything got covered with dust through the long hours through the Gobi. We were spitting and coughing dust. We tried to go to the restaurant car to get a snack, but they threw us out after we waited 20 minutes in favor of a tour group. So we ate ramen, again. Hopefully for the last time on this trip!! The border crossing leaving Mongolia wasn't too bad. On the Chinese side, the book had said that we could get off the train and change money/buy something to eat while the bogies were changed to fit the narrower Chinese gauge, but that turned out to be mistaken. Instead, we all lay there dozing, sweltering in the heat (on incredibly hard beds--and this was soft class!). When our passports were returned at one a.m., we tried to get off the train to get some water, but the psycho attendant kept yelling "five minutes!" at us and pushing us back into the train, so finally we paid a dollar for a half liter and gave up. The day seemed endless.

The morning was far more encouraging. The scenery during the last 2-300 km to Beijing was stunning--just like out of a movie. It was overcast (and/or smoggy), so not too hot and miserable. Lots of cute houses with triangular roofs, people working in triangular/conical hats, smiling work crews waving at the train, policemen marching, and so on. It is only in the last few hundred km of our 8500 km journey by train that it got really interesting to look out the window most of the time! The taiga, steppe, and desert were all pretty monotonous. We really started to get excited about China when a woman showed up selling delicious ripe mangoes on the train, which we devoured in about three seconds.

Beijing is so awesome. We took a taxi from the train station to our hostel, which is in a hutong north-west of the Forbidden City. Hutongs are the traditional Beijing neighborhoods consisting of narrow streets lined with courtyard houses and very small businesses. They are slowly disappearing in favor of tall apartment houses with all the amenities, but the ones in this area are very cute. Our hostel is decorated with red all over, has a lovely courtyard, and we not only have our own bathroom/shower but also air conditioning! We realized the other day that for the 16 nights until we got back from the Gobi, we had only had running water for 12 hours, and we've only had our own bathroom for two other nights on this trip. So we are living in the lap of luxury.

On a recommendation from a hostel worker, we headed out to find something to eat after scrubbing the Gobi dust off us head to toe (I washed my hair three times). At first the restaurant didn't seem to serve very spicy food, but that was soon remedied by how tasty it was. We ordered pickled vegetables (cucumbers, mini bok choy, and something that looked like red carrot--pickled with lovely hot Sichuan peppers) and green melon with garlic and chili, sweet and sour duck (B, of course) and steamed fish (me). I was trying to order fried fish, because I thought the steamed fish might be bland, but it was amazing. This was probably in part because when we started eating, the fish was still alive. (The guy brought it in a plastic bag to see if B approved of it.) B also had fresh pear juice, while I had cucumber juice that I could flavor with sugar as I wished. Including jasmine tea and two beers, the entire meal came to 18 dollars. This with the fresh fish being one of the most expensive items on the menu--market price at 6 dollars.

Satisfied and full, we wandered around for several hours just looking at the city and the people. It feels much homier than many of the places we've been, probably because New Haven, California, and so on have lots of Chinese people and we're only now discovering that they also live in China! So far, Beijing is lovely, smog and all.