We got up late-ish and spent a while packing our bags, and then, much to our surprise, successfully mimed "Please can you store our luggage until our train leaves tonight?" Then we wandered into town.

We spent most of the day wandering round Tiananmen Square and avoiding the vendors of postcards and books. It was strange how they would all home in on us in large crowds and then suddenly disappear, having thrust whatever they were selling into our hands. We were left looking lost and surprised, and then they would return to claim their goods, explaining that the police were around. In fact, there were a lot of police in the square, and everywhere we looked the vendors were carrying out sneaky trades with tourists or trying to look innocent.

We had a nice lunch and took our time over it, and walked a bit more. As the sum was setting we sat in a tea shop, in wicker sofas that swung from the ceiling, drinking expensive Chinese tea. Then we stocked up on train food and made our way back to the hotel to retrieve our bags. We'd left plenty of time to get to the station, which was just as well because the journey took almost an hour at that time of night. We queued to get to the platform and then walked for about half a mile to get to carriage 18. Our room seemed smaller than the last one, but I don't think it was. We shared it with two Chinese men who sniffed and grunted a lot and then retired to the corridor to chat with one another, leaving us to oursleves until about 10pm. We watched a bit of a film on the little LCD screens that every bed had, and then one of the men came in and chatted to us. He asked the normal questions - how long have we been in China, are we married, so we have children, what do we do for a living, and there were a few slightly awkward pauses while we tried to think of things to ask him. But we chatted for about an hour, and he spoke about his daughter and how she loved going to school because she had friends there, and as an only child she didn't have any companionship at home. He said that he thought that by the time she grew up just about every child in China would end up going to University, which will create a very strong, educated workforce in about ten years' time. In the end he let us go to sleep, and the two men snorted and sniffed for most of the night. I didn't sleep so well this time: the train was quite bumpy and seemed to swerve a lot and the cabin was very hot.