Day 431: Perth Chinese Consulate and Kings Park

Having spent two days getting the paperwork together for our Chinese visas, I was pretty sure we were going to be turned away.  Sure enough, they asked us for a flight booking into China and a confirmed hotel reservation for the first day.  We don't want to fly into China we want to take the train.  To get a train ticket, we need a Chinese visa.  It's not that there's a law against entering China by train, it's just that it's been made complicated.

Walkway in Kings Park

Realising we were not going to get this sorted out the same day, we went for a walk in Kings Park.  It's like a lot of Australian parks - very well organised.  There are free barbecues.  There is a really nice cafe with a terrace letting onto the enclosed children's play area so that adults can eat coffee and cake while their children play.  There are wild areas, carefully landscaped areas and nice views.  All in all pretty nice.

Boab tree - it's what they call a Baobab in Australia

After a while we went home and booked a flight to Beijing which we hope will be refundable and a hotel at Beijing airport which we are pretty certain will be cancellable and printed it all out.