Bullet to Beijing

Travel day today. Instead of flying we opted to take the bullet train for the 4 hour trip to the Capital. After a short taxi ride to the train station, getting on was very orderly with everyone lining up and politely waiting to get on.

It was a cloudy, hazy day with a bit of rain around, so for the first section of the trip we couldn't see very far. But regardless we plunged past some big industrial areas with large power plants (again think many of these were nuclear) and wind/solar farms. Going through the hills and valleys we hit a top speed of about 310km/h.

We then got out onto the plains where the track straightened and the train could really stretch its legs. We saw a top speed here of 349km/h. The 1200km trip took us a little over 4 hours.

After arriving into Beijing we checked in at our hotel. We then were whisked off to a Peking Duck restaurant for dinner. The ducks were cooked in a proper wood fired oven and the skin was super thick and crispy. Delicious! We also had a huge assortment of other dishes, including; pork belly, hand pulled noodles, cauliflower with Chinese bacon, tomato & brisket soup and almond tofu in a white chocolate casing for dessert. Safe to say we had to be rolled home at the end.

We got back to our hotel, the Capital Hotel near the middle of Beijing. It's an old classic style hotel which is stuffed full of antiques and art work. Being far too full from dinner, we went for a bit of a wander to check out some of the artwork which includes some amazing pieces. There are huge murals covering the walls, a grand chandelier in the main atrium, one of the most intricate wood carvings you'll ever see and a very cool display of some white gold fish. The gardens outside are also amazing, but we'll get some photos to share when it's light outside.Read more