First super train

Super trains inly go at 250km per hour! Tomorrow we are going one a high speed train that will go much faster. We will let you know

This morning Eric took us to a super new station where the security is like an airport. Enormous and with some signs in English we managed to find the train.

We have found that although the Chinese people we have seen have always smiled and been friendly when it comes to queuing they knock anyone else into a cocked hat. Tone has become adept with his elbows already but it is quite extraordinary and something that is just different to what we experience at home. Another time to suspend your expectations and realise that we are all different. I would however rather not suspend my expectations when it comes to expectoration! Chinese people who are not young spit a lot and that will certainly be something I won't get used to.

Once we had got onto the train all was fine. It was clean, fast and on time and we were in Changchun in just over an hour.

We were met by Isabella Liu who speaks great English. She told us we were the first English people she had met in Changchun.

Hotel, lunch and city tour. Lunch was great because we went to a restaurant where the cooking is done on a hot plate in the middle of a big table.

Changchun was once the Capital of Manchuria and is really very nice. Wide tree lined streets and a square that is the largest in Asia. Even bigger than Tiananmen Square apparently.

Here we or rather I made our first purchase of two kites for Tom and Ed our grandsons. In the park there were dozens and dozens of kits being flown and I persuaded Tone to get some for the little boys. I would have liked a big one but we need to remember our flights coming up in a week or so.

Lots of interesting places here but it is not well known to tourists and unfortunately we missed the best attraction which is the palace of the last Emperor Puyi. He was the subject of the film "The last Emperor" It is a long way to come back so I think we will have to accept that we won't see it.