When we arrived in Beijing, Scott was pretty touristed out, and wasn’t that enthusiastic about going to the Great Wall. Becky insisted, and by day three, he was feeling much more excited about the idea. We decided that rather than taking a tour, we would try to get to the wall using public transit. Scott…

At first we thought it was the sound of an Espresso machine as the steam bubbles through the coffee. Then we realized it was coming from a person. Every few minutes, we would hear the sound again, at such a volume that we could hear it from a distance. It echoed through the corridors of…

54 km, 4 hours For our first full day in Beijing, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the bike lanes and head out for a bike ride. The Lonely Planet mentioned a nice ride out to the Summer Palace along a canal path. We thought we would give that a try.…

We arrived in Beijing expecting utter chaos but found the train station to be relatively calm. After searching and walking in a few circles, we eventually found the luggage consignment department and were able to claim our bikes. We reflected upon how in China we handed over our bikes confident that they and our gear…

We paid the extra to ensure we had two bottom bunks in a soft sleeper (1st class, 4 person cabin) on the train from Kunming to Beijing. With any luck this would mean we had a private cabin for the journey, as the upper bunks in soft sleeper class are usually the last to sell…

In order to ship our bikes and most of our gear, we needed to bring the bikes and gear to the “luggage consigning office” at the Kunming train station a day in advance of our train. After some confusion and going to the wrong place, we were guided to the correct office by a friendly…

For our first morning in China, we returned to the noodle shop we visited the night before, to have another bowl of the best rice noodle dish we have had on our entire journey. It was especially yummy, and Becky took a picture of the noodle lady (although she did not smile). She remembered us…