6.Temple of something or other, and a bullet train, and tai chi

Walk after breakfast picked the car that we want to hire when we get back next time.

Should be good for fifty or so ks.  One for the left foot and one for the right. Fit the whole family. 

Had a bit of fun with the street vendors Lolex watches 20 yuan, and panda hats for ten.   

The first part of the bus trip today was excited discussion about how much fun we all had shopping yesterday at the Silk Street  market....  We are not as engaged as some of our fellow travellers. 

First stop was the the state silk shop.   Silk fill quilts for less than $250.00,but if you also wanted a silk cover and pillowcases you would be looking at more tha. $1200.00 for the quilt alone.   Guess what Nathalie is getting for Christmas.... But it did up the weight of Andrews backpack by 20%.

Then to another gardens and temple.    Once again the temple was spectacular and the gardens were well kept and impressive.  Today we saw something very rare for beijingers.....

The sun tending to blue sky...but still very cold.

Once again there were local people gathering, just to sing, dance, play cards, paint, or more particularly in this garden parents visit in the hope of getting a match for their child....they up pieces of paper with the vital statistics of their child on the ground and then the discussion begins.

Dancing

Looking for matches for their children.

This temple was made for the emptor to pray for good harvests.

Real gold on the top.

Then did some tai chi apparently with a master in the park......the locals had a chuckle anyway.

Tibet......we will see.  Apparently need six months notice and special permits to visit.maybe..

Then off to Bejing West  railway station to get a bullet train to Xian....met our new guide Henry.

He is tall.    He is Chinese.

The station is very busy with many Chinese people around and about.

The train we are taking leaves at exactly 1737hrs.  The interior is like an aircraft, but don't have seat belts but lots of leg room.  Just messing around 296 -298 kph for the first hour or so....apparently we have a top  speed of 315kph.   

 

Pretty fast cafe

That's her next to him.

During the journey we had a chance to to have a chat to some of our fellow travellers....quite a few handy travel hints picked up..car leasing in France, travel in Austria, and other stuff.  

Henry the guide seems very personable, but has us starting at 0900 tomorrow.....terra cotta worriers.  They are the ones who are concerned with the preservation of the warriors. Then something else tomorrow night......busy busy busy.    The bullet train is the China very fast train as opposed to the bullet riddled trains to AltonaNorth.  Not fully full, about 70%.   Very smooth, quiet and gentle acceleration and deceleration.  The dinning car; car nine of 14 cars, is  basic and you could buy a boxed meal of Chinese food for $8.00.

 

Xi'an (Sian) is an enormous railway station bigger than some of the airports we have been to.  Unfortunately,  for security reasons, no cars or taxis within 400 m and busses have to stay a good half kilometre   away.  Ok for us but for some of the more senior of the group a big hike.  The 40 minutes to the Shangrila golden flower n hotel. "The best hotel in fown'. Xi an has only seven million people..  It used to be the capital of China before Beijing.