Snow White, Red Square

We booked a soft seat (as opposed to a Hard Seat, Hard sleeper, or Soft Sleeper) Guaranteeing us a seat and no smoking. The train was actually pretty luxurious. We had consecutive numbered tickets but the seats were not together so I had to negotioate with another passenger via hand signals and bad charades to ask if we could swap seats. He finally got the message and I thanked him in Mandarin (one of the two phrases we have mastered), he replied "No Problem" in perfectly clear English. Thanks!

The train ride was comfortable and we actually got sopme sleep in fits and spurts, despite the fact that the lights were on the whole time. We sat across from Lu, a Phd student from Beijing. He spoke very good english and between our Lonely Planet and his mini atlas we showed where we all came from. It was nice having some extra company and he was extremely gracious when we arrived in Beijing by buying us a map so we didn't have to dig through our bags for the cash. Thanks Lu!

To make a long story short the hostel we had in mind didn't actually exist any more so we walked a bit turned around, went through the staff only area of a fancy hotel, got a recommendation for the Jade Hostel and took a taxi back in the same direction we had been walking. Oh yeah it was snowing!!

Little did we know, it was Beijing's first day of snow for the winter. We were going to have a hot shower and take a nap, but decided against it. Walking around Beijing in the falling snow was so beautiful. We went to Tianenmen Square, saw the Mao Zedong Mausoleum (didn't go in yet) and The Forbidden City, built in 1421 for the residence of the Ming and Qing Dynasty Emperors. It was freezing cold, but so much fun! We were practically celebrities in Tianenmen Square as several groups of people approached us to be in their photos. Famous again. I think we may have seen 10 other Westerners the entire day.

One thing we are getting used to in China is being approached by endless 'touts.' These are people who make eye contact with us and rush right at us to either sell us some crap (postcards, kites, guided tours, Beijing 2008 Olympic paraphernalia, misspelled clothing rip-offs etc) or to lead us to a certain store. We had countless offers by younger Chinese people to see their Student Art Exhibition. They dragged us into conversation by first asking where we were from, how long we are staying in China, do we like China, and what are we doing for the rest of the day. After about 15 of these, we noticed a pattern forming, and just started telling them, "Yes, we have seen it already." This seems to work rather well, and suddenly they are not interested in us any more.

We went to a nice restaurant for dinner (paid $5 to get stuffed instead of $3) then headed back to hit the sack.