We took the train from Beijing to the Mongolian border. The trains in Mongolia use a different rail gauge from China, so at the border they take the train into a workshop (and with everyone aboard) jack the carriage up and change the undercarriage and wheels.

We stayed for a couple of days in Ulan Baator and also stayed for a night at a ger (traditional Mongolian tent) camp. The camp was in a really beautiful location and the gers are tourist ones and very comfortable. I was expecting to see lots of desert in Mongolia, but the camp site was in a location that could have been in a European Alpine area.

We also got to see a traditional Mongolian wrestling competition that was being held out in the countryside.

We visited a memorial to Soviet soldiers who died during the war.

We also ran across a Mongolian wedding party.

Ulan Baator has some really nice Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.

And surprisingly Ulan Baator is also home to the International Intellectual Museum (they have lots of puzzles). But their standards aren’t too high because as well as me, they let George W. Bush in when he visited.

Traditional Mongolian Greeting:

Mal sureg targan tavtaiyuu

(I hope your animals are fattening up nicely).

Temple of Heaven

Forbidden City

The weather was bad when we went to the Great Wall, so we couldn’t see that much of it.

I also went to a tourist kung fu acrobatics show.  That was fun to watch.

Chinese Trivia of the Day: The Great Wall is simply called the long wall in Chinese.

Have fun,

Aidan.

After Huang Shan, I visited Chengdu in Sichuan Province. On July 22 there was an eclipse in some parts of the world.
I saw a partial eclipse in Turkey and basically there was nothing to see, so I wasn’t holding out too much hope, especially since the skies are so grey in many parts of China.
Chengdu had a total eclipse though. The total eclipse was scheduled for 9:10. At 8:30 there was no difference. Then at about 9:10, the sun appeared from behind the clouds and you could see part of it disappearing. Then it went really dark suddenly, like it was the middle of the night. And in a few minutes it was light again.

Chengdu also has a panda sanctuary. The panda sanctuary was ok, but a bit disappointing compared to some of the photos I’ve seen. The pandas have nice outdoor play areas, but when I was there, all of the pandas were in their small, dark indoor enclosures. It was fun to watch them playing around, but it was too dark to take any good photos. I got to see a 3-day old baby panda, which was cool. It looked like a little mouse (but we weren’t allowed to take photos).

Then I went to Xi’an, one of the old capitals of China. The first Chinese emperor was buried here along with thousands of statues – the terracotta warriors. The terracotta warriors are displayed in three big pits. The main pit has thousands of stone warriors. Each of them have different faces.
The warriors were discovered in March 1974, an auspicious time for revealing world treasures.

Have fun,

Aidan

Chinese Language Factoid of the Day
Panda is not a Chinese word. In Mandarin they’re called da xiong mao (big bear cat).

Disaster Aftermath Action Tips:
If you are dramatically rescued from the scene of a disaster, make sure you mention the name of a popular company in your first words.

There was a big earthquake in Sichuan province last year. One boy was pulled from the rubble after being trapped for 80 hours. His first words were that he wanted a cold Coke. He became a local celebrity known as Coke Boy and Coke have agreed to pay for his university education.