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Published: July 25th 2010
Day 1
Wednesday morning and we were all ready for our trip...
The trip started in a chauffer driven car to Heathrow airport (aka dad's Hyundai!!!)...
After an emotional goodbye with Mum and Dad, we arrived at the airport an hour before we could even check-in! Slightly nervous we sat on some uncomfortable airport seats munching on our lunch and playing typical geeky Brett games to pass the time. With our flight at 4.40pm we were able to check-in at 1.40pm. As soon as this time came we headed to check-in, although we were bewildered at the new technology in terminal 5, where you check in by computer and then drop your bags at ANY of the gates (how does your bag find the right flight?!). The first hiccup of the trip.....the computer did not recognise our booking number, then it wasn't sure about our passports, then finally after we entered our flight number it said there was a problem and no seat was allocated and to speak with management!!! Now even more nervous and worried we spoke to someone, who said the flight had been overbooked...after a phone call and checks on the computer she returned to us and said.....we had been upgraded to "Club World"!!!
After dropping our bags off, we recieved the first benefit of "Club World" as we fast tracked the security check...so instead of queuing up for half an hour with the riffraff we went through in five minutes, mixing with the toff's and businessman whilst we were dressed in shorts, t-shirts and old trainers!!! Once past security we saw the "Galleries Lounge" (only available to First Class, Club World etc) and thought we would try it out expecting expensive drinks with comfortable seats....but instead we sat on comfy sofas, eating and drinking what we liked, all complimentary!!! What a lovely start, UNTIL....
First big mistake...after chilling out, time flew past and before we knew it and checking our tickets we realised we only had five minuted before our "gate closed"...with the signs saying we had a 15 minute walk we started to panic and ran...a member of staff going in the same direction showed us the way and tried to reassure us we had plenty of time but we still ran...we arrived at 4.25pm (five minutes late) but there was still a queue of people waiting to board...big relief and of course we got to fast track past everyone!!!
The next luxury were our seats which strangely were diagonally facing each other and were like individual pods, we were given blankets, pillow and the seats could reclince flat so you can sleep! We were also given a three course dinner, breakfast in the morning and complimentary drinks the whole flight - what a lovely start to the trip!!
Day 2
We landed in Beijing at around 09.45 and found it really easy to find our way around the airport as all of the signs were also in English! Once we collected our backpacks we managed to find our way to the right shuttle bus despite noone speaking a word of English!! Luckily we were the last stop as there were only Chinese signs and people on the bus and the translation on the speaker was not clear. We got off of the bus and into the extreme Chinese heat at a bus station which was surrounded by a three lane road either side with traffic everywhere! Our instructions said to get a taxi to the hostel but there were no taxi ranks and again noone spoke English but we guessed that we had to flag one down from the road as they were passing. We got into the taxi and tried to ask the driver to take us to the hostel and showed him the address - he did not speak a word of English and we ended up having to phone our hostel who spoke to him and gave directions! The driver dropped us off in a street and pointed in a direction muttering something in Chinese. We headed in that direction until we manged to find a guy who spoke English who directed us to the hostel - we had finally made it!!
The hostel is really nice and clean - much better than we'd expected and the staff are really friendly and helpful. After a tiring day we had a quick look around the area and had some food at the hostel before going to bed early.
Day 3
After a long night's sleep we decided to head out and see some of the main attractions in Beijing. We'd already found the nearest tube station the night before and managed to find our way to Tian'anmen Square (for the equivalent of 20p - everything is really cheap here!). We wandered around the square and the Forbidden City grounds. The weather here is so humid that it's really tiring just walking so we didn't end up going inside the Forbidden City! Now confident with our map and the tube, we decided to head to another stop to get a boat to the Summer Palace. Despite looking really close on the map we spent an hour searching for Beijing Exhibition Centre where we could catch the boat and none of the locals were able to help due to the language barrier (literally NOONE speaks or understands any English apart from the people in the hostel or the odd Westerners/Chinese students we find in the street!!). Very frustrated, we decided not to waste our 20p and decided to head to a restaurant where we had really nice food - the menu was also in English! We headed back to the hostel and we tried to book the train to our next destination, Xi'an. We could only get a hard seat on the train (for a 15 hour journey!), a day later than we had planned to leave but thought we'd go for it! We met a couple of American guys (Mark and Kevin) in the bar and chatted to them for a while before heading off to bed.
Day 4
We had an early start as we had booked a tour to the Great Wall of China the night before with a private company rather than the Hostel! Was this big mistake number two?! We headed off in an old car with a young couple who said they would take us to the Wall and the Summer Palace but also to some factories and Tea House...alarm bells started to ring and we were worried what we had got ourselves into!!! (Mandy had said not to go for it, but Brett saw the bargain!). It took an hour and a half to get to the Great Wall but we stopped off at a pottery factory where we quickly looked round the show room and headed out, in order not to get ripped off! Our tour guide didn't seem too happy with us being so quick but we then went to the Wall (The Mutianyu section of the wall) and were left to do this by ourselves. We made a JOINT decision to climb the 3000 odd steps rather than the easy cable car...however after 20 steps and the heat Mandy was already wanting to go home!!! We eventually got to the top of the Wall and walked along, taking some pictures before heading back down with jelly legs and having a lovely meal. We then met our guide again and went to the Summer Palace and had a lovely walk around (our STA "student cards" are getting us things half price!!!). We seemed to be the main attraction at these places, constantly being stared at and even being asked to be photographed with the locals! Finally we headed off to the Silk Factory and Tea House, but despite our fears we were not forced to buy anything and the free demonstrations were actually quite interesting! The "tour" turned out fine, we had a great day and most importantly we didnt get scammed!! We spent the evening having some food off the local night market, which was a fun experience and very tasty!
Back at the Hostel we collected our train tickets and there was a problem, but our new friend and worker "Henry" was very helpful and to cut a long story short we are now staying here until Tuesday morning and getting a "Sleeper Bus" to Xi'an which should be much more comfortable than the train anyway!
Day 5
After a long day yesterday we are chilling out today and are going to head to a local park and maybe watch some acrobatics tonight...
So all is well with us and we'll speak to you soon.
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Chez
non-member comment
Check you guys out with the 'club class'! sounds good so far! try not to make too many 'big mistakes'! Glad your having good time, will look forward to the next installment... x