Leaving on a sleeper train

/15/07 Leaving on a sleeper train.
(Technical problems, exhaustion and whiny children have prevented posting until now 9/19, but that’s all fixed now, at least the technical end.)
The Z19 overnight Express pulled out of Beijing North right on time, 9:21pm. We had another action packed day. Though Angela wasn’t picking us up until noon, we still had to pack, shop for our trip, get $ changed and check out. Gazing at the room strewn with luggage, new stuff, and laundry it didn’t seem possible. Jamie and Lela went out shopping for batteries since I had fried the recharger plus water and juice, and more Chinese currency. Then they went swimming again. (I never got to see the pool. Wah.) Most of the packing was done when they got back, and we were downstairs and checked out when Angela arrived, a minor miracle.
We checked the bags and walked around the corner for lunch to a Mongolian style restaurant. Lamb and beef are the mainstays but we managed to find suitable choices for all, lamb ribs for the meat eaters, a delicious mixed mushroom soup, fat noodles for the insatiable noodle head, Ms. Lela, and an eggplant and green bean stir fry. While we ate, there was live music and performance of Mongolian traditional songs and dancing (somewhat brought up to the 21st century with a mixer, amps and an applause track) on a small stage right next to us. It was a bit loud but fun. Lela finally got her wish to have Angela eat with us.
We walked back to the hotel and met our driver, loaded down the van with our bags and headed to the Temple of Heaven. The grounds around it are manicured with rows of trees each a unique character of twisted limbs and rippled bark. It is a popular place for retired people to gather and dance and sing.
The Temple is reached by a climb up yet another step flight of brick stairs. Lela was fading and insisted on staying in the stroller, so we carted her up, getting many amused stares. The Chinese don’t use strollers – either the child walks or they carry them – but we did see several children her age being dragged along in the process of meltdown.
The Temple is a spectacular circular building with three levels of roof in celestial blue tile. At every ancient site in China even the shape of the building has a symbolic meaning. (Modern ones too - the curved shape of our hotel mimics the shape of ancient gold and silver ingots, a cupped palm, to bring wealth.) The platform is square, representing the earth and the building is round like the heavens. The three roofs were the Lord of the Heaven, the Emperor, and then the common people. Everything has been restored, and the painting on all the ceilings, pillars and beams gleamed. Lela succumbed and slept through the tour of the Temple and other buildings, back to the van, (garnering many smiles and one lady telling us via Angela how beautiful she was - my opinion too) and almost all the way to the Acrobatic Show.
At the Acrobatic show, Lela got her promised ice cream (Mongolians not running too big on dessert menus). Jamie tried the corn flavor that was yellow and shaped like an ear of corn. It had a shell that did indeed taste a lot like creamed sweet corn over vanilla. Lela and I whimped out with strawberry.
We had balcony seats. All was fine until the show started and a paper dragon “flew” across the stage. Lela had her usual theater melt down, and wanted to leave, but I would not budge. Finally the lure of dancers in elaborate Chinese princess costumes was too much, she peeked and was hooked. The show may be touristy but the skill of the performers is amazing. Once she discover she liked it she became their main cheering section.
After the show we headed across town in the now familiar congested roads. Our station was not the one near our hotel, but Beijing West, a new station. We passed Tianamen Square, lit up with hundreds of people out for an evening stroll. Even though it was only 6:45, Angela was getting anxious about the time. We stopped for dinner at a dim sum place the driver recommended. Lela had enough noodles (according to me, not her) so we got a steamed shrimp and vegetable dish for her and three kinds of dumpling for the grown ups. She began giving demonstrations of her acrobatic skills by carrying a pop bottle balanced in her hand around the table. Angela rushed us out and off to the train station. It’s huge building with a modern base and traditional temple roof grafted on. Angela leapt out, nabbed a porter - they are red caps in China too, but baseball caps. He horsed all our luggage down to the train after a brief pause in the soft sleeper waiting room. We managed to cram it under the berths. We didn’t know if we would be sharing yet. Angela waited with us, while Lela gave her an extended good bye and asked her to come and visit (down to sleeping on the sofa) Another guide approached her and began a discussion. One of her charges was not able to manage the upper berth she had booked and could we share? So Elizabeth from Paris is now sleeping across from me. We had an interesting mangled English, French, Italian and Spanish conversation. Jamie read Ariel for the 100th time and Lela fell asleep on the upper bunk. Jamie lay down but didn’t fall asleep. He shifted over to the other upper bunk so I’m going up there now to sleep with Lela.