The day in Shijiazhuang today wasn't quite as good as Beijing. It's too polluted, too crowded, and there really isn't much apart from shops in the city itself (there are some nice places around it though). The people from Shijiazhuang claim that in Hebei province, they are known for being nice and friendly, while the Baoding people are supposedly known for their bad manners and being rude. But today, it seemed to be exactly the opposite, a million zillion people bumping into us, spitting everywhere, and never ever saying 'excuse me' or 'I'm sorry'. It didn't exactly help that Griselle's wallet was stolen in a DVD shop, good thing was that she only had a little money in it, and nothing else. So, after a lunch of disgusting greasy pizza and some shopping and trying to push our way through the crowd, we decided to head back to Baoding. And once we were on that train, everything seemed much better again :) And guess what, right when we got to Baoding, we had people talking to us, *smiling*, being nice, helping us off the train. So, no matter what they say, I'd take good old Baoding over Shijiazhuang any day!!

I posted a couple of new pictures from the Great Wall trip, sent to me by Eric ze French bloke. I also posted one explaining the source of my annoyance today, just a street in Shijiazhuang with people, people, people. I was going to take another one at the train station, which was a total chaos, but had the guy behind me looking into my bag, being a little too interested in its contents, so I decided not to get the camera out.