Resorting to Plan B

We had great plans for today to take the fast train out to Qingcheng Shan, however for the first time our plans and the outcome took different paths.  On arrival at the train station on the day before May Day everyone else had the same idea and, though we could have got a later train out we couldn't get one back and our train to Hunan leaves tonight!

Luckily Kim's sightseeing research had several other options so it was off to Wenshu Monastery and the Tibetan Antique market.


 Brent at Wenshu Monastery 

Tibetan Antique Markets were a sensory overload with a barrage of colour, people, smells and wonderful trinkets!  Wenshu Monastery was a serene and moving place, is it possible the famous five may come back Buddhists?

On the advice of a young Chinese man who had lived in London for 9 years we visited Kuan-zhai Lane which was a modern version of the Tibetan Markets but not to our liking, Chinese appear to prefer the new to the old although they are very respectful of all the old ways.

Brent taking on the locals at the Tibetan Markets and he got 11 out of 12 - won a panda bear and gave it away to the first child he saw.  If he had done 12 he would've won a huge cat which would've been great company for Johnson!

We once again found using the metro really easy plus it's a cheap mode of transport and less confusing than the buses as their destinations aren't in English.

Picked up a USB stick 8GB as that's all that was available and it was Y59 $12 for all the photo's which we're backing up.

Off back to Sim's to pick up Johnson from lock-up then on the train (soft sleeper, yippee). Russell and Brent have been hitting the beers which saw Russell jogging up and down the corridor waiting for the train to depart as 'no occupying while stabling' and he was bursting!!