Finally in China!

After a mammoth trip from Trivandrum to Singapore then finally into Beijing via a McDonalds at the airport and our first taste of meat in two and a half weeks, we got to the Hostel in Beijing and immediately fell in love with the city. There's so much to see and do and the culture was so different to India everything seemed a lot easier, cleaner and friendlier although slightly more expensive, we realised pretty much straight away that there would be no more 50p rickshaw rides.

We spent five nights in Beijing which is a lot for us on our travels and we managed to cram a lot in as usual, the Olympic site and Heavenly Palace were really great, at the Palace gardens we saw loads of people singing in groups,doing karaoke, playing games and doing tai'chi so it was great to see so much of the culture in th city. We also saw a lot of the cities bustling nightlife too and spent an evening out amongst the riverside bars as well as an evening with an Ozzie and a Kiwi drinking 50p beers in a car park next to a strip club, which was pretty funny! We also saw an ace Kung Fu show at the red Theatre, Suze was inspired I think。

We had a bit of a "where is the sight mean to be? oh we're standing on it" moment in Tian'namen Square but the Forbidden City and its gardens were amazing. We also went on a tour of the Hutongs which are the small streets in Beijing where we got to see a traditional family home and way of life as well as attend a tea ceremony (Paul wishes that all of his Boots colleagues were there to share the tea, the Jasmine flavour tea was a triumph) and Paul also had a "Ghost" moment with a Chinese pottery-maker whilst attempting to shape a ceramic jug. It was a special moment.

On our final day not only were all of the cars allowed back on the roads after the Paralympic games which meant getting anywhere was a real struggle but also it chucked it down and we got caught without waterproofs at the summer gardens, possibly the worst and most ironic place to get stranded, waited 40 minutes for a bus in the rain then still had a half an hour walk and a tube journey to get back to the hostel so wrote that day off and prepared to leave for the Great Wall with the group the following day.

A bit of a hike

We were told that the trek up the Great Wall would be quite tricky but we didn't realise we were going to walk so much of it. Luckily the weather was almost perfect and the day was incredible, the views from the wall were just amazing the scenery was incredible, we were doing one of the best sections of the wall too so a lot of the sections were still intact, and by just blocking out the occasional market seller it was a really fantastic day. That night we stayed in a small guesthouse and had some great local food, needless to say we are both really enjoying all of the Chinese food, Paul has even tried fish which is big achievment for him.

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Part of trip: Asia

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