Today was dominated by our first train trip of significance. The G16 high speed service to Shanghai. This new high speed service covers the thousand and a bit kilometers to Shanghai in just under 5 hours with an average speed of about 300km/hr. This replaces the old overnight service which took 10-12 hours or more. We were obviously feeling the need for speed so we 'kicked the tires and lit the fires' and got a taxi. A taxi that seemed to believe that the shortest distance between two points is a rhombus.

The train was everything you'd want a space ship to be. Smooth, sleek, white, futuristic, aerodynamic. We were pleasantly surprised to find on boarding that we'd scored tickets in the VIP/sightseeing enclave at the front (actually turned out to be the back) of the train. This was a little glass enclosed area with special comfy seats that other passengers could come and observe us in. The French couple (they were everywhere, still) in front had the VIP seats with full lie flat beds. However we were happier with our little two seater couch and powerpoint. The service even included a meal and we were happy to hear there were two options for lunch, when we learnt that the first option was fish (Gavin don't do flesh of the sea). The other option was prawns (insects of the sea - worse).


As hoped for the train gave us a chance to glimpse the 'real China' in-between cities. The countryside on this trip was of rapeseed covered fields, dirt plains, bizarre lone apartment towers in open country, cities that would start and stop suddenly and factories seemingly producing everything from oil to dirt. Made in China.

We had stocked our iPad with various helpful apps in order to make the trip work more easily and abolish the need for weighty guidebooks. This included the significantly overpriced Beijing Taxi app that contained the address of various hotels, restaurants and sights written in Mandarin that could be presented to a taxi driver and thereby bridge the communication gap. This had worked well in Shanghai but we had been warned that despite all our fancy technology we may yet come undone as many taxi drivers in Beijing cannot read, hence the taxi driving. Fortunately our driver could read. He just didn't know where he was going. He dropped us off at a hotel near ours. Beggars and choosers.

That night we strolled down the Donghuamen Street Night Market. This market was designed to bring the cuisine of the countryside and surrounding provinces into Beijing. In the country side and surrounding provinces ‘weird’ is on the menu. Scorpion, cricket, seahorse, squid, snake, grub, cricket, starfish, testicles and the venerable dog meat. This could be washed down with a bubbling concoction without English translation (may have just been dry ice but you never know). Gavin went for seahorse. I've have never got along with land horses. I have eaten land horse in Munich but this seemed another opportunity to strike down the food chain. The sea horse was lasooed from its stable and tossed into a wok of boiling oil. Once crispy it was served on a skewer with garlic and chili sauce. Summoning courage (and bitter memories of horses and the sea) the seahorse was devoured head first. Tasted like chicken of the sea. Or sardines.

However our culinary adventurism was waning as we were tired and not in the mood for complicated menu deciphering. A quick requisite visit to the local Irish Pub became a drink and then a meal and before we knew it we'd had cheeseburgers for dinner. This may have, however, helped avoid an impending tear-up/breakdown in certain quarters. Besides it's essentially every Irishman's job to visit every Irish Pub (embassy) in every foreign port. And having notched up Luxor, Tokyo and Istanbul, amongst others, in the past it seemed only fitting to add Beijing to the pilgrimage. It's kinda like the Haag.