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September 20th 2005 By the time I made it to Dahuichang, the railway was already closed and rusting. For a fee, it was possible to get an engine in steam to play with, both to photograph and drive. The engine was basically disintegrating, and every few minutes the driver had to leap out and reconnect various bits of his loco. |
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| We got to play with engine '1', here sporting the tender of '3'. In the shed were three more locos, one of which was inexplicably in pristine condition. |
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September 21st 2005 No trip to Beijing would be complete without a visit to the Forbidden City. As exciting as this was, I'm always fairly dubious of the historical accuracy of such places, which are often restored to fit the image desired by the government. We astonished our guide by racing excitedly out of the end of the Forbidden City to photograph track-less trolleybuses, rather than linger in the gift shop. |