Beijing - 22 June 2012

So here we are in China! Things didn't get off to a great start as the directions to the hostel were rubbish! We landed late at night in the middle of a thunder storm and we were lost in the middle of Beijing, luckily for us a very nice young Chinese boy could tell we were struggling and pointed us in the right direction. We finally got to the hostel about 11.30pm, wet through and a little shell shocked. To say that China is different from Japan is an understatement but then I'm sure it looks better in the light of day. We were wrong! First impression of China is it stinks and the people are well, disgusting. There is litter everywhere, people hack up and spit everywhere, men walk around with their t-shirts folded over their stomachs and kids use the street as a toilet. The hostel itself was ok and the room was comfortable with two pillows each with is a luxury! The hostel was very well equipped with info for tourists and tours and with the 600ml beers at 50p a pop we knew we were going to be ok here. Day one in China and we went to see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Not much to say about Tiananmen Square...it's a square but it is very, very big. You have to go through security checks before you enter and there are guards everywhere. From here we went into the Forbidden City, which is amazing and also very, very big! It is really hard to get your head around how old the Forbidden City is as the architecture is beautiful. The buildings go on forever but the views are not great as Beijing has no sky! It is so polluted the city is covered in thick smog; you can't even see the sun. We had a lot of rain while we were there but you couldn't tell when there was going to be a down pour as the sky never changed. You couldn't see 2 miles down the road, if you could see that and the top of sky scrapers disappeared into the smog. After a long day of walking around we headed back to the hostel, managing to find it this time!

Day two and we booked a trip to the Great Wall of China, we visited the section called Mutianyu which is not as busy as other parts and where you can see sections of the wall that haven't been re-constructed. We got there early and took the open cable car up to the wall, this was my first time in a cable car and it was very high up so I was a bit scared. To make me feel better Jamie told me about the time he fell off one on a school trip!! Once at the top we spent about 3 hours walking in between the watch towers and some parts of the wall were hard work. At times the stairs were steeper than some on the Inca Trail in Peru and one flight just reminded us of the sun gate. The wall seemed to go on forever and was very high up. We even saw a donkey on the wall, he had come up with one of the stall guys, which must have taken them ages! Two young Chinese boys also stopped us and asked if they could have their photos with us! We were like celebrities J We were meeting for lunch at 12pm so we decided to travel to the bottom in style and took the toboggan all the way down! We loved it, and we think there should be one at the top of Inglebrough. I also happen to know Beyonce took the toboggan down so I thought we could be twins J We had traditional Chinese dishes for lunch which were very tasty then headed back to the hostel. There was a BBQ in the hostel that night so we took advantage of that and got chatting with a few fellow travellers. We got chatting to a Chinese boy named Tony...yes Tony, who was volunteering at the hostel to improve his English while he was on his holidays from Uni. He went to Uni in York and was going back to Loughborough Uni in August (he'd even been to Bradford)! He helped us out big time with the trains we needed to book and explained that it's not like England and you can't leave things to the last minute as tickets sell out fast. We also didn't know it was the holiday of the Dragon this weekend, so places were a lot busier..oops! We really enjoyed the Great Wall and doing some socialising and went to bed happy bunnys.

Day 3 - We slept in and did some planning. It had rained all night and we were feeling a bit tired however we set off to the Summer Palace. After walking the wrong way twice and then having issues with the cash machines we decided to write the day off and go back to bed! We had a 7 hour train journey to Datong the next day so we prepared for that.

Day 4 - We got up early and headed to Beijing West Train Station. The station is huge and more like an airport. You have to show your passport with your ticket as your passport number is printed on and then you have to put your bags through security. After that you find the waiting room for your train then after that you can go on the platform once the train is ready to board. Well there was some argy bargee going on as Chinese people don't have any manners and don't understand the concept of queuing however we're British don't you know and if anyone can block a queue jumper it's us!! I nearly punched two women on the train who literally nearly pushed me on the floor to get past! We got our seats and were sat opposite two Chinese women, the woman opposite Jamie spent the next two hours spitting seed shells all over the table, floor and Jamie! Luckily for us they got off after two hours and no one else sat in their seats so we could stretch out a bit. The rest of the journey was ok however we had no idea when our stop was as there were no signs or announcements. We knew what the Chinese symbols for Datong were so nervously looked out for them. As it turns out it was the last stop but we made a note for next time to write down how many stops it would be!

A few things we learnt about Beijing

• There is no sky!
• Totally polluted
• People are rude and disgusting
• The sightseeing is amazing and good place to see the Great Wall
• Three days is enough

We are looking forward to getting out of the city and hopefully seeing some more of the China that people fall in love with.

Love

H & J x