So with catastrophic jeans failure, worthless American Express traveller's cheques and a growing anxiety about our travel and arrival in Mongolia, today was given over to planning and organisation rather than a fuller Beijing experience. This was not helped by the abject stupidity and utter uselessness of American Express. They could not locate themselves, an assosciate bank or anything useful what-so-ever. Instead we took things into our own hands. After a mixed and largely meaningless discussion made in syllables and hand gestures between us, the local branch of Bank of China and the concierge we found ourselves at a major branch of the said bank. Here a hard working and impressively Anglophone young bank teller open & closed a bank account in Gavin's name over the course of two hours. In doing so he relieved us of our Australian dollar traveller's cheques and in return furnished us with US dollar cheques, US cash and Chinese currency. All for $7.50. Quite a bargain.

Next were urgently required jeans replacements. Gavin, having worn the same sort of Levi's for more than a decade, replacing jeans had never been difficult for him. However Levi Strauss & Co. and the Peoples Republic of China have had some differences in recent times hence there presence is low. So low in fact, very few people know where to get them. And so we spent some 2-3 hours hunting them down following a series of bad leads only interrupted by a wholly unpleasant meal at a Japanese fast food outlet Yosihinoya. But late in the day, with a likelihood of seeing the important sights of Beijing extinguished the Levi's were found. We bought a pair of Lee jeans instead. By this stage spirits were low and not helped by the fact that the cold that Gavin had given to Kathryn a week ago was now being returned.



We tried a bicycle rickshaw to raise our mood. It didn't. The driver seemed utterly put out that he should have to ride anywhere with us in the back. If pedaling a rickshaw is unpleasant to you, a career as a pedal rickshaw peddler may not be a fulfilling choice.



With the day looking like being a complete write-off we headed to dinner at a new branch of a popular and highly recommended Beijing restaurant, Da Dong. Here was absolution. Da Dong is visually impressive and very tasty. The la-di-da dining & bar area has a central koi moat surrounding a chef island upon which chefs slice and prepare meals like tasty, tasty surgeons. The menus read like books with 60 or more pages, every dish accompanied by an impressive photograph. The main dining area is also impressively decked out with chefs bringing out small benches to present meals at your table. The whole experience, despite the at-times perfunctory service makes you feel like you are part of something significant. We ordered the house special, a beef dish, crackling pork belly, some noodles and vegetables. Everything was great. There was some irony in coming all the way from Australia only to pay a premium for Australian beef which was very good, but not great. The pork belly, however, was amazing. Best ever. Everything was elaborate, intricate and delicious. Even the bill was pretty tasty too. A suitable and satisfying farewell to Beijing & China. Now over the Wall and unto Ulaan Baatar.