The Arrival...

17th January - Hello Beijing!

After a ten hour flight from London Heathrow we touched down in Beijing...we had arrived! The weather was MUCH colder than anticipated and as we strolled out of the airport in just T-shirts to meet our driver we were given a few strange look from the locals. The driving in Beijing is insane! As we were driven to our Hostel in the middle of the city car horns were constantly being sounded and we were switching lanes every other second! Madness!

We arrived at the youth hostel and had just enough time to check out the facilities before meeting our friend James (the Chinese scouser...legend) and his friend Jessie. We then jumped in some cars and headed off to the twin towers (two very tall buildings in Beijing) to take in the city. The weather was very surreal...a very yellow mist which was actually the smog! The silk market was our next stop and we headed into the multistorey market of mayhem with our minds set on finding a great bargain. The first item on everyones list was some warm clothing. Within 5 seconds of walking into the place we were being hassled by many women.........trying to sell us everything! At one point James was hauled into a stall by two women shouting 'You buy coat handsome boy!'. It was a great laugh and after some bartering we managed to walk out with 3 new jackets (North Face) for a tenner each. Not bad for our first effort! I also put my first words of chinese into action by saying Boo Yahh to every seller that approached (this translates literally as 'I don't want to')

In the evening as it went dark we made a quick trip to Tiannemen Square and the Forbidden City. This was spectacular! But at this point everyone was getting a little weary and decided it would be best to come back tomorrow to see the area in the light. For our first meal in China we were treated to supposedly the best Beijing duck restaurant in the city by James. The food was amazing and I managed to have a go at some ducks feet! (I wasn't a big fan as they tasted a little like chicken skin and gristle and the mustard sauce blows your head off!) Great first night out but after very little sleep for 30 hours everyone was pretty wiped out.

18th January - Tiannemen Square

On the morning of the 18th we met up with Simon who became a great friend during our stay in Beijing. We also had Cindy assisting us and Stu the getaway driver. We were picked up in the Scooby Van (it was a pretty mean vehicle!) and set for Tiannemen and the Forbidden City. On the way we stopped off for a traditional chinese breakfast and ate lots of random foods! Tiannemen was even more stunning in the light and the vastness of the place made us all take a step back and soak up the atmosphere. We also crossed the road where the infamous 'tank man' had stood in the 1989 uprising. After this we piled back in the van with car horns beeping at us for stopping for just a second and went over to Beihai Park which featured the White Dagoba. This was cool. In the evening we met Anna, James' colleague, from Denmark and she took us all to her favourite restaurant in town...Korean.Action packed and very tasty! On the way we also took a ride on the subway. We then headed to a few bars to meet a few of Anna's friends...The Tree being my favourite. As with any night out it finished up in the local takeaway...Macdonalds...shameful! Although when a meal costs 70p who's complaining!

19th January - The Great Wall

"You're not a real man if you haven't climbed the Great Wall"...Well we did it so I guess that says something. An hour drive out of town he were off to the less touristy section of the wall. Simon decided to practice driving the scooby van on the motorway...whiteknuckle but we made it! We walked up the cobbled street to the ski lift up to the wall. Again, very many streetsellers were selling allsorts of goods. We decided to buy a large shuttlecock (the closest thing we could find to a football) to kick around. At the top we were met by a cheery/crazy old man smoking a huge pipe and shouting things. He was really nice though and allowed us to have a picture. Up on the wall the views were awesome looking out over the hills. Simon suggested we raced from one turret to the next but due to the altitude we were all well and truely knackered by half way up the very many steps. When we made it to the highest point on the wall Muc took one of the cleaners brooms and we jumped off the high steps pretending to be Harry Potter (they love it over here!) Got a few weird looks but it was worth it.

The way down was well worth the walk. A huge toboggan run carved into the hill went all the way to the base. Im pretty sure safety regulations went out of the window on this one as went racing down the track bumper to bumper and at the final corner Simon's toboggan clipped an edge and he was down. Not injured though so it was allllllll reeeeeet!

Evening - Sat on a camel, went for the traditional chinese hotpot.

We then went back to the hostel and opened a surprise envelope from James to find we would be staying in the 5* Swissotel in BJ centre tomorrow night. Can't wait!

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