We awoke early to catch the train to Datong several hundred kilometres east of Beijing, where we would spend a day or two enjoying the Buddhist sights before moving on. Beijing train station seemed woefully underprepared for the number of people wanting to travel by train that morning and the waiting room was packed to the rafters while we waited for the train to dock at what seemed toi be one of only 4 platforms serving the city's main train station. One wonders how the city will cope when the 2008 Olympics that it is so keen to herald, actually arrives and more people want to come to the capital.

 But for now we simply had to queue, although that is something of a mis-statement as when our train was called it was one large pile up to try and get past the ticket collectors and onto the train. The Chinese travellers also seemed to think that it was a good time to bring half their belongings with them, meaning that we tripped up on and had to climb over numerous parcels and large bags to even get onto the platform.

We finally got out of the scrum alive and found out seat on the mildly overcrowded train heading to Datong. Depite the fact that my CHinese is almost non-existant, we managed a few brief exchanges and smiles with the local travelling, which made for an amusing 6 hour trip. And so, after what seemed, an eternity we arrived at Datong and found our way into another extremely nice hotel for a very reasonable price. The rest of the evening was spent exploring the city's nightlife which was decidedly non-existant bar a few people kicking an oversized ball around the central square and some very bad karaoke singing in a bar!