It was Sunday 1st October when I was leaving Shanghai for my flight to Beijing.. the start of "Golden Week", also known as the Chinese National Holidays. I couldn't have been travelling at a worse time! Thankfully my flight was early morning, yet the airport was still choca with holidaymakers.

The flight was sound, the Chinese breakfast they gave me was not! I can only describe it as tasteless slop.. not for me, thanks.

Again, I thought navigating my way to the Sunrise Beijing Youth Hostel may prove difficult, but I did so without any problems.

I'd arrived in the afternoon with no plans for the forthcoming days, so I used my time to chill out get my bearings and draw up some sort of itinerary.

The highlights of China's capital are obviously The Great Wall of China, and secondly, The Forbidden City. I'd earmarked the Forbidden City for the following morning and having researched the attraction it was apparent that I must get there early to avoid the crowds.

The Forbidden City opened at 8.30am, so I set my alarm, woke up feeling bright and breezy, got myself ready and set off on the subway with plenty of time on my side thinking I've got this sussed and I'd be one of the first at the gate.

How wrong was I?! I came out onto the streets from the subway below to an absolute massive army of Chinese people marching down a huge stretch of road to the City. The sort of crowds you'd expect to see making their way in to Wembley Stadium on FA Cup Final day half an hour before kick-off! I'd completely misjudged this one.

I stuck out like a sore thumb winding my way in between the Chinese, who I have to say are the most painfully slow walkers and have no concept of what personal space is.

I didn't have a clue how to get myself a ticket, and it was almost impossible trying to communicate with someone to help assist me. Having wandered aimlessly back and forth outside the main palace walls, I finally found a guard who spoke some broken English. The gist of what he said was, "80,000 tickets sold, no more left." Say whaaaaat?!

How seriously wrong was I thinking I could beat the crowds! Haha. Seeing the Forbidden City wasn't particularly high on my "must do" list, to be honest I'd never even heard of it until I arrived in China, but it was at the top of the list of things to do in Beijing so I had to check it out.

Anyway, I wasn't getting in today that's for sure.. perhaps another day instead. However, I'd received a tip-off from someone I'd spoken to at the hostel in Shanghai, who said there's a great view which overlooks the Forbidden City from a viewpoint in Jingshan Park behind the City's walls.

It was much less crowded there, in fact the park was lovely, green and pleasant to walk around in. The viewpoint from a temple on top of a hill inside the park displayed great views over the massive grounds of the Forbidden City, and furthermore over the city itself.

The capital is huge, and the main parts of the city are sprawled out all over the place so to get around the subway is a must. It was still mid-morning with plenty of time in hand so I decided to jump on the subway and head toward Guomao where the city's financial area and skyscrapers are situated.

These buildings had no chance of competing with Shanghai's skyline, although there was an interesting looking one which was shaped like a cube, yet bizarrely deformed with a large chunk missing from its centre. I later found out it was the main hub of Beijing's CCTV and television network.

I wandered aimlessly thereafter finding a lovely green park in Chaoyang away from the heart of the city that also had a modern mall adjoined to it.. probably the nicest and cleanest part of Beijing I saw.

After another miserable display of attempting to eat dumplings with chopsticks, that was me done for the day. Maybe not so successful in terms of planning but I managed to get around a good few areas of the city.

I woke early once again the next morning as I'd booked onto a tour of The Great Wall of China that was supposed to pick me up at 6.00am. 7.30am they arrived.. not a good start! On the plus side, I met a girl from Manchester called Shereen, so obviously being two northerners we hit it off straight away.

I actually wanted to visit a part of the wall in Jiankou, which has never been restored and is far away from the majority of the crowds. It is supposedly quite dangerous in certain parts and tough to climb, yet the scenery is apparently stunning. However, it was another case of the Chinese holidays scuppering my plans as the guides I contacted refused to go when I desired, or were asking for an obscene amount of money.

The Simatai part of the wall on the eastern section is also unrestored and one of few parts to retain its original appearance. It is divided east-west by the Simatai Reservoir and considered to be next in line for being less crowded and just as beautiful. Sign me up!

Just when I thought we were on our way, I couldn't have been more wrong. By the time it was 9.00am I'd boarded three different buses and still hadn't left Beijing, and all they kept putting it down to was "National Holidays!" Absolute joke!

It wasn't until 1.30pm that we arrived to the base of the wall at Simatai. But firstly, we had a tour group Chinese banquet to eat first which was pretty decent, and it gave me chance to meet some other cool people too.. namely Lizzy and Olivia from Adelaide in Australia.

Finally, time for the wall.. Shereen, a few others, and myself decided to take the cable car up to beacon tower 8 and walk up to tower 10, to then turn back on ourselves and walk all the way back down to beacon tower number 1.

The Great Wall in Simatai is built on sheer cliffs and steep mountain slopes. It rises and falls sharply so you have to take a lot of care when you're walking in either direction. Some parts are extremely steep.. there is a part of the wall that the locals call "the heavenly ladder" as it is built on a slope at an angle of 70 degrees. Some places are so narrow on the mountain ridges that only a thin wall could be built on the very steep cliffs with a barrier wall built for safety, known as "single side wall".

The whole thing was majorly impressive. With perfect weather and a clear day on our side the view of the wall winding its way in to the distance, over rolling green mountains, and a backdrop of blue sky, it could not have been better. It's no wonder the Simatai part of the wall is described as "the greatest of the whole length of the Great Wall".

It became much more enjoyable as we made our way further down the wall where the crowds became less and less. A few times I had to sit on the wall and just take a moment to appreciate where I was and what was before me.

It wasn't until 5.30pm when we left Simatai, which is the usual time on the tour that you supposedly arrive back in Beijing.. but it was "National Holidays!" Blah blah blaaaaah!

Those damn "National Holidays" were the reason we didn't arrive back in Beijing until after 10.00pm!!! The traffic was absolutely insane with huge tailbacks on the motorway due to a seven car pile up miles down the road.

What a long day!! Was it worth enduring the horrendous coach journeys and the major faff hopping from bus to bus earlier that morning, as well as being completely knackered by the end of it? Yesssss!!!

Thursday morning.. Forbidden City? Nope! 80,000 tickets sold out again. Ah well. I thought I'd check out the massive Tiananmen Square instead which is close by but separate from the Forbidden City. What another mistake that was!

It was the 4th October Mid-Autumn celebrations in China and obviously I didn't realise the enormity of this particular date. It wasn't for trying but I could not find a way of getting even close to the square since it was all fenced off. It was impossible.. the streets were flooded with Chinese coming from every direction I turned in, holding their flags, faces painted, in preparation to celebrate some sort of parade. I literally didn't see another white person in what must have been well over tens of thousands of people.

Just imagine looking into a sea of people to find "Where's Wally". Well that was me, "Wally", yet so easy to find, sticking out like a sore thumb. I got myself the hell out of there!

Later that afternoon back at the hostel, I bumped into a girl called Anka from Germany, who I'd spoken to a few days earlier. She asked if I'd like to go and try some Chinese delicacies later on that evening with a guy from Colombia called Cesar.. by delicacies, I mean creepy crawlies!! I'd actually been thinking that I had to give it a try while I was here so.. when in Rome, well Beijing.

We made our way to the Wangfujing Snack Street, which is a small food market no bigger than an alley way where the bugs lay in wait. It was absolutely heaving down there with people coming away from the celebrations in the nearby Tiananmen Square.

I tell you what, the food down there didn't look too clever, and there was a smell of faeces that was palpable.. so bad I had to pinch my nose to avoid spewing. So it didn't surprise me when I saw a bloke dragging a massive waste cart through the hoards of people emptying trash in to it.. right by where folk were eating and food was being prepared. That's China for you!

We finally dragged ourselves through the crowd to the challenge ahead, at a burger van type stall. And there they were, presented on the counter standing vertically, impaled on kebab sticks.

"Errrrmm, hang on a minute, they're alive!!" Live scorpions attempting to wriggle free while flashing there wild tails at anything that moved!! This wasn't in the script, the challenge had been ramped up a notch!!

We'd planned on tackling a variety of bugs, however I wasn't anticipating that they'd be alive.. even worse, they were live scorpions! Ah well, when in Rome!

We took a stick of the live scorpions, and three more sticks of dead bugs that had been toasted.. more scorpion, small but chunky caterpillars, and I think locusts!

We needed a stiff drink before taking on these treats so we shoved our way back through the crowds to grab a drink from the supermarket.. even the Chinese were shaking their heads in disbelief as we waded through the alley with sticks of disgusting bugs in our hands.

Stiff drink done, bug time! The other two ate first but opted for a dead one.. I chose the live scorpion to get it over and done with. I've always been curious if I could do this sort of "bush-tucker challenge" that you see on "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" so this was my opportunity, except I wouldn't be getting paid a s*** load of cash to do it.. I was actually paying to do it! Ha

I plucked up the courage, sat down, and prepared myself for the first time I'd ever be eating something that was still alive. The hardest part was trying to slide the damn thing to the end of the stick.. its sword like tail kept trying to stab me every time I touched it. Shiiiiiiit!!

Bang, in you go son.. I've never chomped on something so quickly in all my life to make sure it stopped wriggling around in my mouth or stab me with that dagger-like tail. Crunchy! The worst bit was biting into the body and feeling the fluids bursting out.. YUKKKK!!

Surprisingly enough.. it didn't taste good at all, but after about 30 seconds I'd smashed it and got the thing down. Job done! One star for camp ;)

To be honest, having eaten the other bugs shortly after, which had been roasted in spices, I found those more disgusting to eat.. they were of a dusty texture and difficult to swallow. I even ended up eating another live scorpion to finish things off. "I'm a backpacker, get me out of heeeeeeeeeeere!"

Cesar and I made our way back to the hostel and had a good few scoops in the bar laughing at our accomplishment.

I'm now ready for some shut-eye and feeling quite tipsy, perhaps it's the bugs? I've an early start in the morning.. I've fortunately managed to book myself a ticket on a high-speed train which I've always wanted to experience. I'm heading for Xi'an in Central China.

Beijing has been fun, although extremely frustrating in parts with not being able to do certain things as I'd wished due to the stupid Chinese holidays, however, that in itself has been a unique experience.

China's capital is not my cup of tea.. it's grubby, run down, and polluted. It doesn't have the sparkle or pizazz that Shanghai has to offer, but it is steeped in an abundance of history. Visiting The Great Wall of China was my clear highlight from my time here and one I'll never forget.

Xi'an tomorrow.. choo choo!

Zàijiàn xx