China: Departures, Arrivals and First Day Survivals

Ni Hao! So we are here. We are in Beijing. I have now been awake for the past 30 hours, although it seems like a lifetime. Consequently, I am pretty darn cream-crackered as you might expect, but it's been a rather eventful day by anybody's standards.

First of all, we nearly missed our flight to China! The incompetent people at Apostrophe (Heathrow Terminal 5) seemed to take much longer than expected in giving us three cheese and tomato paninis. But we made it, panini in hand, bum in seat, cheese in mouth. The flight was a pleasant affair: 10 hours of excited banter and blockbuster films made it pass quite swiftly. Vinny managed to sleep for at least two thirds of the journey Stu didn't even bother to try and sleep; and my excitement got hold of me so much that everytime I closed my eyes, I would be awake within a matter of seconds.

Anyway, we finally got to Beijing. It was super hot and smoggy. We found the hostel without too much trouble, which was located just north-west of the central train station (incidentally my compass got its first airing of the trip - 1-0 to Jack). Unfortunately, the staff seemed to have lost our booking; but with a bit of arguing and humid contemplation we managed to sort out some rooms. Before we got things sorted though, we tried to find our booking confirmation in the hostel's internet cafe. This is where we met our first nemesis of the trip! A pompous stereotypical 18 year old fellow, who firstly asked us 'why' we were travelling, as if it wasn't obvious already, talked incredibly sincerely about a gorge he had visited, bragged about smoking marijuana; and then to put the proverbial turd-flavoured cherry on top, proceeded to describe himself as a 'Gappie' (presumably short for gap year adventurer).

After a revitalising shower, we strolled to the Forbidden City. On the way we were continously approached by hawkers and chinese students who were trying to persuade us to go to expensive art shows. It was pretty bizarre but cool to chat some locals despite their intentions to sell things to us. The Forbidden City was much more than I expected. It was just absolutely vast, and seemed to go on and on. Courtyard after courtyard, of impressive architecture and wide open spaces. After the initial swarm of tourists near the entrance, there was a certain sense of grandeur and calm about the place.

After that we walked across to Tiananmen Square. It was pretty big, it was pretty square, and it was pretty Tiananmen. In the words of Forrest Gump, that is all I have to say about that.

Back to the hostel, two hour nap, ate a mass of chinese food in a restaurant just north east of the city centre. Now we're back hanging out at the hostel with a few super cheap chinese beers. Ace.

Summer Palace tomorrow, the Great Wall the day after. It's gonna be sweet.

Big love

Jack x