Hong Kong to Beijing

The overland adventures began on Saturday with the train to Beijing...

After a silly all-nighter on Thursday my last couple of days in Hong Kong were slow and I was hoping to catch up on some sleep on the train, but wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I had feared a train full of people occupying every available space; a train in which I would not be able to stand up lest I should lose my seat, where the floor would be covered in spittle and the iron bunks would fold out from the wall with a creak or two giving no confidence in their supportive abilities. As ever, I was entirely wrong. It was a through train so there was no-one standing in the aisle eyeing up my seat, the hocking and spitting was restricted to the toilets and the bunks were better than the ones in the hostel in Hong Kong. Although we did see a few that would pass for the Tube in rush hour, like this one with people climbing out the windows.

The whole experience was thoroughly civilised. Air stewardesses (or whatever the train equivalent is called) kept us in line, barking orders at us in Mandarin (English has all but disappeared), pointing out the sights, serving up some rank looking rice and gristle for purchase. They even turned out the lights at bed time and came in to wake us up in the morning - possibly slightly unnecessary.

Outside we left behind the skyscrapers of Hong Kong and headed into the land of the identikit tenement block. From the sunshine, through the snow...

and thankfully out the other side (Beijing is cold but dry at the moment). Two words to describe the view - flat and grey.

24 hours later and I stepped off in Beijing - awesome.