We got up late and packed and then tried to convince the hotel to accept our credit card for payment. To their credit (see what I did there?) they tried a few times but their machine only accepted Chinese cards and therefore it was a moo point. We were also pleasantly surprised by the cost of the call to Mikey's grandmother - about a quarter of the price of the laundry! We left the bags at the hotel and wandered into town.

We checked our email to see if Nationwide had responded to our urgent requests for assistance, but, unsurprisingly, they hadn't. There was a lot of news about the American elections, though. So we walked to the Bell Tower and had a look at the view and the tower itself, and we managed to be in the right place at the right time when the traditionally-dressed men and women came out to ring the bells and play some unusual instruments. Then a scantily-clad girl in holographic-print halter top and sparkly pink trousers did some dancing to the sound of bells, a Japanese tourist stood in front of the stage and posed (much to her embarassment: the photographer was quite insistent!) and some very squeaky noises were made with an instrument that looked like a tiny mutated bassoon with extra bits. Entertaining but all a bit surreal.

We stopped for lunch in one of the places we tried the other day. We knew they had an English menu, but that was unforthcoming. Fortunately, though, we have been collecting the Chinese words for various foods and we could point to a couple of them in Mikey's notebook. The waitress pointed to a few things in the menu, to which we agreed, and, having succesfully ordered beef with vegetables and a side dish of vegetables, a duck appeared. OK, not literally, because that would be a bit scary and much more noteworthy than we're making it here, but a waitress bought us a roast duck with pancakes and the trimmings. We must have inadvertantly ordered it. Which we really should stop doing: it's becoming a bad habit! The beef dish and the vegetables arrived too, and bowls of rice, so we were quite content for a while. I was glad that I managed to stave off the offers of duck soup that I now realised had been made at the beginning of the meal.

We collected our bags from the hotel and then tried to hail a taxi. We didn't think it would be hard, as several men in green meter-taxis were waiting on the doorstep and offering us rides. When we said we only wanted to go to the station, they all lost interest, and after a while a bunch of the helpful hotel staff tried to negotiate with them. One doorman guy disappeared with a wave. We tried to flag down every passing taxi, and even the taxi drivers joined in with enthusiasm which I don't think helped our cause much! The original driver came up with a special offer price of four times the amount we knew the trip would cost and seemed surprised when we turned it down. And then, just as we were running out of time and considering walking instead (which may have taken 45 minutes with all our bags) the doorman turned up in a taxi and whispered to Mikey that the trip should cost no more than 6 RMB, about a fifth of what the previous guy had offered. We loaded all our luggage into the car and we were dropped with little hassle at the hotel to pick up our train tickets. I think both Mikey and I had had satisfying silent arguments with the hotel about our expected lack of tickets, and that we were both very slightly disappointed that they were waiting for us. We noticed that one of the tickets was slightly cheaper than the other, indicating a top bunk, and resigned ourselves to sharing. We must have been especially lucky on the first trip.

The waiting room was crowded and whenever anyone even slightly official-looking approached the front of the room a surge of people pushed forwards. There was almost no room to breathe, and even less room to move with backpacks on. It was rather uncomfortable. About fifty minutes before departure, we were allowed onto the train. There was a couple already in the carriage as we arrived. They watched Mikey heft the sacks up into the over-door luggage rack. Another man arrived. Confusion ensued. Yep. There would be five of us tonight in a four-bunk room. Interesting.

Not in the best of humours though, we managed to prevent friendly conversation we weren't in the mood to join by getting our computers out and writing diaries and things.Of course, this provoked a lot of interest and a lot of conversation about us, but so far we haven't been invited to join in, which is good. At one point there were five of us in here and three in the corridor, and we were, as we have come to accept, the focal point.

I climbed onto my top bunk and read for a bit and the man on his own kept coming in and turning the television up loud and the lights on, which is annoying, but it's not as bad as his noodle-slurping. Off to sleep now.