An early start today as we went to the New Zealand Embassy for breakfast.
It is in a diplomatic enclave of leafy tall trees, high walls and large gates all with chinese guards standing to attention outside. We got an amazing welcome of all the embassy staff and diplomats there waving us in. Nice to hear some kiwi voices – even though it has only been 5 days! We thanked them for their help releasing the truck. We chatted to Chase, a young maori man working at the embassy with problem cases ie lost passports, misbehaving kiwis needing to be sent home. He was very down to earth and reckons that sometimes at lunchtime they have competions doing bombs jumping in the embassy pool. We were shown a special little carved whare that they have in the embassy house for meetings etc. After a couple of photo sessions we stayed for an hour then left in convoy with Ambassador Carl Worker standing at the gate waving a huge NZ flag. Everyone lined up waving us out and wishing us all the best on our expedition. Quite special really.
We drove Northwest to the Great Wall of China. Damn that thing is steep! Real steep. I huffed and puffed halfway up then realised it would be worse on the legs coming back down so turned around early. Good idea. Got some great shots and it is nice to cross this one off my bucket list.
Did I mention how well the Landy is running? Once we got the battery sorted out – It was flat when we got it out of the container as a rear interior light was left on. There was no oil patch under it when we pushed it out of the container and it has run smoothly since it drove off the dock. Plenty of poke too with the engine management system in now. Chur Toyshop!
So driving in north China……….. is the best! If you like racing and driving like an arsehole you will love it. Did you know the right hand shoulder is actually another lane! Yep, and no one gets pissed off if you pass them on there. You can flash you lights and honk the horn as much as you like. Weave through the traffic – mainly trucks. Hazards to look out for though - people on the highway carrying huge bags of plastic bottles etc that they collect from the road for cash I geuss, huge potholes, oh and cars that drive head on down your side of the road – about 4 of them today! Every where we stop or drive people are looking at the cars. In China white number plates are military vehicles only. So everyone has a nosey. This morning in Beijing at the lights of an 8 lane road, a man was crossing in front of me. He did a double take when he saw the car, he looked closely at the NZ stickers on it and raised his hand in the air with a chur bro sign and a huge smile. Definitely a homesick kiwi.
Tonight we are in Jining, a small spot on the map but 7+ million people here. This is outer Mongolia and everything is quite different from Beijing. The people look different, it is in a rural desolate area and it was 19 degrees here today! A nice change from the 30+ we have had every other day.
Had Mongolian hotpot for tea. Murray and Greg found me some very cool fuel cans at a market here. They are army green with a star imprint – similar to Chinese issue army jerry cans. 2 for 100rmb which is about $20. Everything here is pretty cheap. Shame I haven’t had time to shop properly. Don’t worry…. I will!
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