Just keep peddling

We decided to hire bikes out today so that we could cycle to the train station to buy our train tickets for our journey to Taiyuan on Thursday. On our map we had the station looked only a little bit further from the hostel than the Forbidden City yesterday so we were optimistic we would be there within 20-30 minutes. How naive we were! 2 hours 20 minutes later we finally arrived at the station! Admittedly we did get a bit lost at times so probably made the journey longer this way but we were definitely feeling the pain. Negotiating the station was a challenge in itself but luckily we finally found a ticket desk that had one cashier who spoke English which was fantastic. Before setting off again we stumbled across a restuarant that luckily had pictures of some of it's dishes on the wall. It took us taking zoomed in photographs of the photos to explain to the guy what we wanted. I thought my picture looked like sweet and sour chicken but was more like roast beef and potatoes on noodles! It was delicious though and so cheap which is a bonus. We stopped at the White Cloud temple on the way back which was an amazing temple to see as it is less touristy and used by the community so we got to witness the practices of the local people which felt very intimate and a privilege to see. At the start they had a bridge with a copper bell hanging underneath and you paid for 50 Cooper discs with the hope of throwing one which will ring the bell. Anyone who manages to ring the bell will be blessed with good luck. Nick managed to hit it and I'm pretty sure I did as well. They also gave us incense sticks which you could light and place in many different large vessels outside the small temples for each deity. Seeing a young girl light her incense and bow three times to each temple as the adults did alongside her was so moving. The cycle back wasn't as hard as expected and after a well deserved shower we ordered our first Chinese take away in China! Wasn't as good as the fresh restuarant good here but was still a welcomed well earned dinner.Leer más