Route to the Rising Sun ...

Not wishing for a repeat of the Pot-Pasta incident, this time we'd come prepared for our 30 hour train journey to Beijing ...

We hit Chinese immigration at midnight, where the only holdup was changing the bogey's - otherwise known as the wheels - as China runs on a different gauge to Russia & Mongolia. Well it would, wouldn't it. At we sat in our compartments the whole train was literally uncoupled, and each carriage simultaneously lifted up while the wheel units were replaced - quite a sight.

As we progressed through China we began dropping through a series of dramatic gorges before reaching Beijing in the early afternoon - after just a couple of hours exploration we headed to the airport where we'd spend the evening before our flight to Japan.

We'd had only had the briefest taste of China - but the cheap delicious food and the incredibly amusing signs in Chinglish everywhere (more on that later) all filled us with enthusiasm for a more lengthy visit in a couple of weeks time.