Ni hao true believers! Welcome back to the exciting adventures of Alex Kidd in China. These next set of blogs, dare I say it, will be documenting the most exciting and awe inspiring part of my journey in China thus far; Spring festival. I was given a six week holiday with complete reign of where I went, what I could do and who I could interact with and along the way I have been culminating a huge collection of stories the likes of which will be irritating my friends whenever anecdotes arise in the pub for the next two years or so. Over the next few blogs stories will be shared of not one, not two but six cities of China; Beijing, Harbin, Shanghai, Suzhou, Gualin and Xi'an. Some of these names you will have seen before, others are new but all of them were as different as the last. The last six weeks have been, cliché, some of the best of my life and I doubt I will ever forget most of the stories and friends I made along the way. So, without further a due, let's start at the beginning; our return to the mighty city of Beijing!

Journey part one:

Train journey length: 34 hours (Hard seat) Total: 34 hours travel

Distance: 2000 miles Total: 2000 miles distance

The first day of our holidays came sooner then Me and Stephen could ever have anticipated. Months of planning and co-ordination between us and other volunteers had been a stress (at times an agony) as well as tension with when our official holiday would begin. And yet it arrived: The 11th of January. At six am that dark and frosty morn me and Stephen stepped outside of our apartment and into the world knowing we would not return for six more weeks, perhaps ever (depending on how well our planning/ gap yah instinct took us) and I felt wonderfully invigorated and free. We were like astronauts, stepping into the plains of the unknown for the first time, documenting our experiences for the world to see. Then we waited for thirty minutes for the car to arrive with a train to catch very soon and I reverted back from the discoverer of civilizations into a freezing nervous wreck. Once the driver arrived we were off and before you know it we were in Urumuqi station, awaiting the train to take us away on our grand adventure.

However we did this begrudgingly. Due to a mixture of corruption (it exists on many levels) and not knowing anyone corrupt enough to buy tickets in a 'pre-sale' (they shouldn't exist) we had landed our selves in a hard seat for the following thirty four hour journey. The best way to describe a hard seat is essentially a glorified park bench with a picnic blanket strewn over it for comfort. We battled our way amongst the masses towards our carriage and the Chinese take this business seriously. Limbs were flying left and right in an almost looney tune like struggle to get to our seats. Once we finally settled our bags down and found our seats (both isle seats meaning there was nothing to rest on) we found ourselves in the best kind of company; drunks. Lovable drunks. But drunks none the less. Ladies and gentlemen I am proud to proclaim the three gentlemen sitting within my vicinity managed to drink five bottles of the 69% plastic bottle horror that is Baijou amongst themselves in the duration of our journey. They were knocking it back like pop and I was along for the ride.

Here is an exact copy of the notes I wrote to myself on the train: 'Train day one: 11 hours in. Made some friends. Most are drunk. Living on nun bread'. At this point the train was great; I'd read slaughterhouse five, we were well stocked in nun bread (a round, delicious Ughyur treat) and our friends were being rather welcoming including two (non-drunk) students who spoke rather good English. This part of the journey was enjoyable. However as the night wore on into early morning followed by day and the drinking, loud shouting and occasional vomiting did not stop the journey took a dramatic turn. Note number two: 'Train day two: Slept for two hours due to the man who crawled under my chair and passed out. It's six am and everyone is drunk again.' The journey was not exactly fun. It wasn't the most comfortable. But in the end, it did get us there. At 8pm that night we arrived in Beijing.

That night was one of reconnecting with others. We decided to stay in the Ming court yard hostel, the same as when we first arrived, in a twelve bed dorm which it turns out was almost entirely made up of Project Trust volunteers. Arrival was like storming the halls of Valhalla after a great but bloody battle and finding yourself amongst old companions. We smelt liked we had been through a bloody and medieval battle as well, which helped add to the atmosphere really. We reunited with Ed, Nick, Stephen, Dan, Tim and Marcus that night and what a glorious evening it was. After a beer though I was ready to pass out, the train journey was rather unforgiving, so we hit the dorm, ready for the next days activities.

The next day we awoke and ate Bingzi (fried bread) from the store opposite the hostel (may that store forever remain open) and made a venture out to the Llama temple. To tell you how tight a budget (and give context to a later anecdote) this holiday was made on when we arrived at the temple and saw the potential price 35 yuan/3.50 pounds we all stopped and glanced shiftily at each other from side to side, not saying anything for a minute before someone approached the counter and shouted 'It's only 2 yuan!' to which we all literally shouted 'Wayyyy' and entered. The temple itself was still functioning with monks adorned in robes wandering the place; it was a rather profound sight to see as not only that but visitors to the temple were also giving offerings to statues scattered about the temple. Instead of offerings as to a God they burnt incense in front of ideas like 'Hope' or 'Fear' whilst meditating upon these ideas. It was a rather beautiful thing to witness and I'm extremely glad we went. We also viewed the worlds largest Buddha carved from a single piece of wood which was rather huge and awe inspiring. The whole temple is intriguing and if you take the time to appreciate the practices and the beliefs of the people within it become all the more wonderful.

After this was a rather less wonderful and awe inspiring visit to a sadly more famous sight of Beijing, a sad reflection of the current state of our society, know only as the silk market. This is what china has become famous for; cheap knock off products absolutely everywhere. Any product you can think of and this six floored complex was likely to have it from clothes and shoes to camera parts and dvds. You could buy absolutely anything and the sellers themselves were not afraid to be aggressive neither vocally nor physically. Dan got a strong right hook off a shop owner trying to entice him in whilst I received many 'Handsome boy' comments they had read off the sign of a shop opposite them. A few people did buy products though and seemed satisfied. Our ok level of Chinese also seemed to throw them off a little which was good as when they were communicating about prices to other sellers we understood it all.

After this we headed to a famous high street of Beijing which, again, China has become synonymous with. Off the high street was a 'traditional area' flogging allsorts of useless nick nacks and horrible foods to any idiot white foreigner stupid enough to buy it. Lucky for them, we fit right into there demographic. As we walked along there were live scorpions on sticks (for food), whole fried miniature birds, smelly dofu and more treats to make the mouth dribble vomit. However, having tried small roasted bird I would recommend it to any silly foreigner who find themselves on that street. The most important thing to mention about streets like this is do the locals eat it? No? Then you probably shouldn't either. After this was our first night out together since the last time in Beijing and we once again hit the rather nice area of San li Tun. The rest is history (or rather non PC for volunteer blogs. Sorry Project).

Most people were far too hungover too shift out of bed the next day but for those who were we headed to the park behind the Forbidden City. When we arrived there was a school trip of roughly two hundred kids running around the inner entrance. We had to wait for Marcus to come inside as he was having a cigarette before entering so here we are, all of us with cameras around our necks, glancing around a group of two hundred school children in a rather conspicuous manner. We must have looked very dodgy indeed. We climbed to the highest peak of the park soon after overlooking almost all of Beijing. It was a very beautiful sight and we got a view of literally the whole city in one glance. Originally we had arrived in this park looking for a lake though and could not find it. We saw from the top of the hill that the lake was within the compound of the Winter Palace. Now. Here in begins a rather shameful tale. We exited the park and headed towards the Winter Palace. Once we arrived we saw the price to enter to see the winter palace, a historical monument and beauty of Beijing, was fifteen yuan. One pound Fifty pence. We all stood there for five minutes debating whether or not to go in. To answer your question I will forever wonder what that lake looks like from closer than the top of a mountain. Instead of seeing the winter palace we spent the money on noodles. It was not our proudest moment I will admit but from then on we have used the winter palace, fifteen yuan, as a base measurement for the money we were spending.

Once the winter palace business was said and done I headed out with Tim and Stephen Erhorn to find a place of mythical quality in the Beijing underground community; The rock 666 shop. This is a shop from which almost the entirety of the Beijing underground metal scene operates. We wandered up and down my favorite street in Beijing (full of guitars, hotties and coffees) until finally we came upon an alley marking the symbol of the beast; a jamming guitar on a wall. Once inside I was like a kid in a candy shop; every obscure CD I had ever wanted, every t-shirt, every LP, every patch, every jacket. I was overwhelmed and took a minute to admire the electric guitar they had lying around. After talking to the guys in the shop, adorned in leather jackets covered in patches with long black hair, we discovered a gig that Friday for a band I'm rather partial to; Thrash metal titans Havok. We couldn't buy tickets from there but did later buy them from the venue, the once more legendary Yugong Yishan. With that set up I got very, very excited. After this we headed back to the hostel and relaxed among friends, ready to start the next day a new.

That's it for the first half of my Beijing blog however the second will be posted immediately after this one. I just thought you wonderful readers may well like a resting point between my adventures otherwise my babbling and ranting my drive you all mad.

So until next time readers,

Excelsior!