The Beginning of the End

I can't honestly say I wasn't looking forward to China, my idea of a pleasant end to our travels involved more time lying on deserted beaches in a remote part of Thailand, but Siobhán had been adamant that she wanted to travel through China and so it was we touched down in Beijing, not entirely sure what we were to be expecting on the other side of the plane doors.

Well, initial impressions were definitely good, no queues to speak of, shiny new airport and probably the most efficient customs checks to date; every customs officer even had a little pad with four buttons in front of them so that you could rate their performance, can you imagine the uproar by unions in the UK if such a scheme were to be implemented? Anyway, we gave our customs man a top rating, not just because he was quick, but also because we were slightly concerned he'd be dragged away by the authorities if we didn't ;)

As we left the airport we joined our first queue, that for a taxi, and we quickly discovered that queueing in China isn't quite the same as back in dear old Blighty. Indeed walking straight to the front of the queue if you can't be bothered waiting seems to be the order of the day. Despite this very un-English behaviour before too long we were ushered toward a taxi and our first challenge. The tour company we were using had provided us with details of which hotel we were to be checking into, but only in English! A twenty minute muddle of confusion ensued, with us trying to make ourselves understood, speaking to his friend on the phone who was trying their best to translate and me heading back to the taxi queue to ask for assistance, all failing to get us any the nearer to our driver understanding the destination. Finally, I had a brainwave and called the hotel we were going to, explained our situation to the English speaking receptionist and handed over the phone to the driver to receive instructions . . . first hurdle overcome and we were on our way.

The hotel was a pleasant surprise, it wasn't exactly the Ritz, but neither was it the slum I was expecting. Our first day in Beijing was our own and first order of the day, breakfast! We walked around in something of a daze as the confusion of being immersed in a culture with a different alphabet became all too apparent. We finally chose a restaurant at random, only to discover they specialised in curry. We were not about to let this change our minds, as we weren't entirely sure we would fare any better in any other establishment, so we set about enjoying a chinese curry as our first meal in the far east.

The remainder of the day we spent wandering around Beijing and visiting the Temple of Heaven, where we became aware of how many people there really are in this country. It was not possible to get a photo without their being hundreds of others in the shot and a school trip to the temple seemed to consist of more children than I think exist in the UK!

Our first evening meant meeting up with our tour guide and the rest of our travelling companions. The group turned out to be very small and consisted of a 21 year old blonde girl form England, a 70+ aged couple from California and Bing our tour guide. The following two days consisted of a walk along a 30 tower section of the Great Wall, trips to the Summer Palace and Forbidden City and a visit to a charitable project the tour company supports, which helps educate and employ mentally handicapped people from poor homes.

The walk on the wall would probably be the pick of the activities and we ended it by deciding to take a trip down a zip wire over a river. This all seemed like good fun until we reached the top of the queue. Now those of you who know me will realise I am not the most svelt of individuals, but whilst being strapped into the harness and being told "No, No" with a shake of the head I was thinking I would have to trudge down the path in embarassment rather than take the zip wire. Not at all, despite being told (or so I thought) that it did not seem like a good (and by good I mean safe) idea for me to go, due to the size of the harness compared to me, the lady in charge seemed to forget her earlier warnings and simply pushed me over the edge.

I will admit following our earlier exchanges I may have held on a little tighter than I would in other circumstances, but fortunately her terminal predicitions failed to materialise and 30 seconds later I was safe and sound at the bottom of the wire with the rest of the gang.

You can see a video of Siobhán and Kirsty (who were made to go together because Kirsty is so small) heading down the zip wire below.

We ended our three day stay in Beijing, by taking a mini-bus to the train station to take what was to be the first of four overnight train journeys. We were stoping in what is known as hard sleeper class, which basically consists of a doorless cabin the size of a postage stamp with six bunks, three on either side. I will spare the joyous details of one of these journeys for a later post and so it was we were headed for our second stop in China, Xi'an.