No tickets to Mongolia

First become unstable, then you can occupy.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Beijing was to buy tickets to Mongolia. But because of the Olympics, the Chinese government is holding all international train tickets from Beijing until about 5 days before departure. I'm coming back to Beijing next month so hopefully I will be able to get the tickets then.

So this day was spent running around trying to get tickets on the Trans-Mongolian Express and then waiting for my train to Chongqing.

On the train I came across a wonderful sign on the bathroom door. At first I had no idea what the hell it meant. I figured it out when I went to use the bath while the train was stopped at a station and found the door lock. I thought that someone was having a really hard time in there, but I was willing to wait. One of the ladies working on the train saw me waiting and she pointed to the sign. "No open, train stop. Open, train no stop."   Ahh... I see!