Into the heart of big red.

Last time we checked out travelers were in Beijing. The next stop was Datong to see the Cloud Ridge Caves. These caves contain over 50,000 Buddhist statues carved into the walls 1500 years ago. But first a little about getting to Datong.

We took the train. The trains in China are all circa 70's and feel circa 30's. There are usually four classes of travel, soft-sleeper (first class), hard-sleep, soft-seat and hard-seat. We had a hard-seat and it was. Getting to our car after walking past 20 other cars, this is the longest train I have ever seen, the seat numbers read 158, 157, 156... We thought we were in the wrong car till we walked to the end and found seats 5 and 6 (realizing there were over one hundred and fifty people in the car). With the windows closed up tight the cigarette smoking started as soon as the train pulled out. On our hard-seat there were three of us on a bench covered with green vinyl. Six hours later we arrived in Datong. We've upgraded to the soft-sleeper since as our journeys have been 18 hours. These are private cabins with four beds and both times we've had very kinda elderly couples as our cabin parters. Kathryn spent her second night ever on the top bunk and didn't fall out in the evening when she got up. The same can't be said for her first night at the top in Toyko.

Before we boarded the 18 hour train to Xian we stopped for lunch in Datong. The restaurant was a 'hotpot', (which we figured out a day later) and not really knowing what to order as the menu was all in Chinese the head waitress took over for us (thankfully). She ordered plates of thinly sliced beef, muchrooms, pork balls, squid (we think) and an assortment of side dishes. After that she cranked up the burner and started boiling the soy sauce (?) and vegetable broth. All the above went in. She took it out put it in a bowl of peanut sauce she had prepared for us and onto our plates. These are the moments you travel for. She would have none of our tipping and we were glad that we have at least learned the word for thank you which we said profusely as we left.

The 18 hour sleeper to Xian was a much better trip that our first train experience. In Xian we saw the Terracotta warriers. A highlight for both of us. We went to the Forest of Steles Museum which is the worlds heaviest library. There are over 2300 engraved stone tablets that are 4 feet wide by 10 feet tall and one foot thick. There's a tablet that marks the earlist known mention of Christianity in China in 781AD.

From here we moved on to Cheng Du and spent a day outside the city climbing the holy Taoist mountain of Qingcheng Shan. I can't say how many steps there were but it took us three hours to climb to the top. We took the cablecar down. It was great to spend a day outside the city and getting some exercise. The day before we rented bikes in Cheng Du and rode around the town. (the 'town' has 3.4 million people...this is small for China). Being on bikes again was great even though the bikes weren't that great. Two days later our butts still hurt. We moved up a notch in the traffic hierarchy as well, from pedestrian to bike rider. The car is at the top. Traffic here is a schizophrenic ballet. And of course we ended up out at rush hour. Imagine a crossroad...50ish bikes on one side and 50 on the other. The bike light goes green. The cars keep coming until the 100 bikers surging into the middle force them to stop. 100 bikes meet in a very confined space. chaos reigns but somehow everyone makes it across, slightly bumped and sounding their bell. but every now and then the bikes pass each other like teeth in a zipper doing up (to borrow laura's phrase) and it's pure poetry. Stopped for tea in the park, listened to music and watched some women practice the fan dance.

From here we moved on to Leshan by bus and felt like we'd arrived in a 'town' rather than a city. As we got off the town bus three boys 6 years old all wanted to say hi and walking home last night a girl about 5 wanted to talk with us after her mother had told her it was OK. She asked us if we spoke english, if we liked the NBA and did we know Yao Ming. The next morning we took the ferry ride to see the Grand Buddha carved in the side of a mountain. He's 71 meters high and has 7 meter long ears.

Today we arrived in Emei Shan to climb the sacred mountain for three days and then we'll make our way west towards Tibet and then down to the province of Yunnan.

We've been keeping some list and wanted to share some with you.

Food we've seen on a stick
- fruit covered in gelatin
- 1/4 pineapple
- strawberry's dipped in chocolate
- intricate designed sugar candy
- corn
- octopus
- starfish
- squid
- all sorts of unidentified meat cubes
- watermelon
- plantain

Food we've eaten on a stick
- strawberry's dipped in chocolate

Things we've seen carried on a bike (a pedal bike, not motor!)
- 2 T.V's
- baskets and baskets of flowers
- oildrum stove cooking corn, potatoes, chicken
- hot pot
- sofa and a side chair
- big slab of cake
- pregnant wife
- girlfriends, babies...basically all manner of people
- 3 people
- full jugs of water for water coolers
- propane tanks
- bushels of vegetables
- 50ish brooms
- bags and bags of plastic bottles stacked 4 feet high
- fridge
- bike repair shop
- and our favourite...a person holding his motorized scooter on his lap.

Things kirk has bumped his head on...
- Shower bar, Rio de Janeiro
- Bus bar, Rio de Janeiro
- another shower bar, Paraty brazil
- cave somewhere
- top of doorway, porthole - Navimag Ferry
- roof of hostel - top bunk Tokyo, Japan
- street sign - Beijing (ed comment: this was a doozie, surprised he didn't see stars!)
- door of variety store - Datong, China
- roof of sleeper in train - somewhere between Bejing and Xi'an
- window opening of train - somewhere between Xi'an and Chengdu
- bed light above bed on wall - Xi'an, china
- ceiling in stairwell - Chengdu, China
- bus ceiling - Cheng Du, China

off to find some dinner and get our packs ready for starting the hike tomorrow...

k and k