Travelling day, travelling day! Woke up from scant amount of sleep after our late night banter and one, final MacDonald's trip to get ready for the train. We had to be up and ready for 7:30 to catch the bus which would take us to the train station. After a couple of goodbyes and a couple of no shows (Pete and Henry I am calling you out!!!) we boarded the bus, I fell asleep for the journey although I was told later that Beth fell off her chair while trying to ca...

After our little late night karaokeing the evening before (and possibly a cheeky trip to MacDonald's and some front step banter before bed) we were all not in the best of sorts. Nevertheless, we had a full day of meetings ahead. I woke early and showered but didn't even have enough time to have breakfast, Alicia had made it clear that we had to be on the bus by 9 which would take us to the embassy, so the girls made sure they were up and ready and piled on to the...

Seven was far too early to be woken, with only precious hours sleep, but I soldiered on for our epic Great Wall hike. We started off from the lodge in the village, walking out along a concrete road in the humid morning air. Through the path we hit abandoned buildings and household dogs set on the loose. After about 10 minutes we hit a small path that lead up into the green hillside which officially started our hike. It was torture. We could see the dip of the ...

We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed after our first night's sleep in Beijing. Seven of us girls were sharing a room with a random Chinese girl in the hostel next to the bar, so we had good access to wifi, although we were disappointed with the Great Fire Wall of China, which meant that most sites at home were blocked. Today, we were scheduled for a Chinese cooking class followed by a scavenger hunt around the hu tong district. We headed out with Alicia to c...

We arrived in Beijing, hot, smelly tired messes. We were greeted by Alicia and Mike, our two western reps who live in Beijing and are charged with taking care of us. Our arrival was hilarious: we were travelling down the escalators towards the front of the arrivals terminal when there was a bag pile up, people were jumping for cover, screams echoed around the marble room and panic ensued. It was horrific. Many were, of course, scarred for life. However, the exc...