Even in the countryside there is new construction , the train passed piles of bricks in fields ready for construction

The worst kind of American capitalism is prominent in China - like Amway (sell to your friends) and Herbalife (pyramid selling)

Shenyang used to be the capital so I walked up to the area of royal burial chambers. Then after taking a couple of wrong uses I made it to the Museum of Japanese Atrocities which tells the story of the Japanese invasion prior to WW2. Then back into the centre of town past old temples to the Shenyang Forbidden city.. but heavy rain. Went to find the History Museum eventually I found it. But it was closed down. The only place where people speak English is a fancy new Russian hotel I found the city Square has been rebuilt and the new museum is there. Back to the station to get a ticket.

Walking - Around Mao there is huge outdoor dance exercise class, other groups practice writing chinese characters on the paving slabs with huge wet brushes. Most of the people look well dressed and newly prosperous. Mao stands in the centre of a square now surrounded by the lights of new capitalist businesses, down the street a huge bookstore, a 1Km busy busy pedestrian mall lots of market etc. Talk about a nation of shopkeepers ! In the rest of the world Chinese communities are always doing business and it appears that this has spread to China. I guess that the overseas Chinese have bought up huge parts of China and others have taught the government Singapore style capitalism where it appears lots of pioneer enterprise businesses are actually all owned by the government.

Internet cafe ..this one has a way around the government filters. Walked into Koreatown - korean bars and restaurants all signs in Korean. (the north Korean border is 200Km away)

Weird Train disaster - In China they have systems for doing things. You get your ticket usually from the foreigner ticket window. Then you go through the metal detectors etc. into the waiting halls and find the waiting area for your train. They call your train and go to the gate and they inspect your ticket. I was waiting and it was 10 minutes before my train, but they hadn't called it so I had to ask. She told me to go hurry to platform 4 and then called out something behind me. I followed other people and there was the train with the destination Haerbin in English on Every carriage. All the other people went into sleeper carriages, but to save money I had a seating ticket ! So I kept walking down the train past sleeper carriages. Past 20 of them until I was at the front of the train. There were no sitting carriages ! I asked the inspector where my carriage was. He didn't understand. I asked the 2nd inspector where my carriage was. He pointed across the platform. There was another train also marked Haerbin. Then it started to leave !. There were 2 trains going to the same destination at the same time, from the same platform. Then I ended up paying 3 times more to have a nice class sleeper bed. Of course what the woman was shouting behind me was, that my train was the one on the left !

Fri- got up late as Adam is the most laid back person in the world (no food in the house ..only beer) - I moved to hotel as Adam was going to the countryside. Only £2. I walked around - park - chatted in the beergarden with a prosperous overseas Chinese visiting his family his brother owned the bar.

Sat - I explored the underground tunnels which go for miles under the city connecting all important buildings and now filled with markets. They are useful for the cold winters I guess when snow is on the ground for months and temperature are below -20C. Then I crossed the railway back to the pedestrian shopping Street I walked along the riverfront and took the ferry across to the park island. But it wasn't so warm yet this far north.