Getting to Lanzhou Flights were very very long but we survived (with many movies), and had our last western fast food for a while - McDonalds in Dubai airport, which kept us going until Beijing, 17hrs of travelling in all. We passed the swine flu scanners and were picked up by La-la (yes that is her English name), a friend of Smiles. She drove us to our hotel though only after managing to get completely lost for 2 hrs on the Beijing highways, poor her! ;) We had our first experience of authentic Chinese food with La-la at a famous Beijing duck restaurant, Beijing duck was fantastic as was a foot high tower of crispy noodles, I was less keen on the bony cold dishes though. Andrew predictably liked all of it and even managed some ... read more