What I first noticed about Beijing obviously was the amazing airport, which was one of the best I have seen. The arrivals terminal was spotless and gleaming. And then I remembered the 2008 Olympics and realised that as soon as I got to the city it would probably be another story and it was. It's dirty, dusty with stray animals looking for scraps, frantic street vendors, babies peeing on the floor (they don't have diapers here just a hole in the crotch of babies clothes), over congested roads with wandering beggars. Sporting events always seem to have the most selective development priorities: fancy new arrivals terminal, good roads from the airport to the 5* Hotels and good roads from the hotels to the stadium, leaving everything in between pretty much in the same mess as before.

Beijing is hot, chaotic and extremely polluted. With a very Dubai feel of a city of which only half is constructed, there are signs everywhere to malls and shopping complexes however once you reach them they are only half built. So far I don't think I couldn't have gone to anywhere on more opposite ends of the spectrum, Japan and China seem like worlds apart. I met Sarah at the airport and was really proud of her for speaking mandarin so well. She is basically fluent and has an amazing accent I can't even recognise her voice when she's speaking Chinese it's that good.

We spent the first night in a hostel that was more like a fancy boutique hotel that had a beautiful courtyard full of travellers drinking and watching the football. They were the type of backpackers who travel round South East Asia on their gap year with daddy's credit card and think they're roughing it while emailing friends about how they've been saving the world on their week volunteering project with street children so they can slap it on their CVs while using Wi-Fi on their Mac books and drinking imported Coronas. "Each to their own" is something I'm still learning.

What I first noticed about China were the ridiculous prices. Coming from Japan couldn't have been more extreme. Everything here is dirt cheap so we completely splurged and splashed out the first weekend. We stayed at the Hilton, we ate in French restaurants and drank imported wine. I felt like a kid in a candy store and thought yes I'm back in a developing country! And the Sarah was really happy because she says most people the visit her just want to eat Chinese food and experience "the real China", well…. I just knew that I could never afford these things in Japan or England and on all my trip I'm visiting first world countries and I'm only here for a week. Yeah yeah if your only in china for a week you should be take advantage of Chinese culture. I think you should really spend at least a month in each country but since I'm only here for a week to see Sarah, I'll take a rain check.

On Monday we moved down the ladder and stayed in a dorm at a cheap and cheerful hostel and spent our time visiting the Forbidden City which I'm pretty sure was where the last scenes of Mulan were filmed. We visited the summer palace which was beautiful and so peaceful and saw the great wall. We opted for the less touristy and un restored section of the wall so although we didn't see the famous Great Wall that's on every postcards we still got to walk along in and climbed in an old tower and we were nearly the only ones there. It was great, in typical us style we didn't arrive until 4pm after taking the wrong bus and spending about an hour in MacDonald's sampling the Chinese menu. They have this awesome cassava purple pie which reminded me of the food I still crave from Ghana and had a real laugh trying to order over the counter due to the language barrier.

We met up with Nacho, another ex-loop group bartender who's friends with Soran. Although he left Market Place 6 years a go we still have quite a few mutual friends. I met him in a square behind the drum tower and sat outside on plastic stools drinking beer. It felt just like somewhere in Spain which is probably why he drinks there as he's from Seville. His Spanish friend, Marco was also visiting so after staying in few hours in the square we hopped on the back of their motorbikes and went riding around the lake. I know its dangerous but I got a bit of a thrill out of riding around on uninsured scooters, with no helmets, wind in our hair, while out bar hopping, I felt like shouting yes were back in the third world where you could do pretty much what ever you want instead of the ridiculous nanny state of England we live in.

We found a really pretty bar on the edge of the lake, with a big TV outside so we sat drinking outside in the balmy evening watching Japan win their first game. It was a really lovely night. They dropped us back at our hostel and told me I could stay at his house for the rest of my trip so moved out of the hostel the next day. Oh lovely Spanish hospitality. I miss the Spanish, Italians and Brazilians. Nacho even picked me up on his scooter with my suitcase, it felt like times I've had travelling in Thailand packing massive backpacks onto tiny little scooters while dodging the traffic.

Seen as how I'm splurging so much already I decided to take a flight to see Matt. I would regret it if I didn't but will probably be living on beans and rice in Colombia as a result. Well it's worth it I think. It took an hour and a half to get to Yinchaun a small city in Inner Mongolia. I pictured this dirty, dusty old communist city with a few prostitutes, dogs tearing apart a dead chicken and all of the inhabitants in blue workman jumpsuits which is what all of China had to wear in the 80s.

But oh no I arrived at the gleaming shining airport in the middle of the desert. It was boiling hot and so dry and you could actually see the sky which was deep blue. It was beautiful. Matt met me at the airport in typical style. Still drunk, tiny drunken eyes, slurring, stinking of beer and cigarettes, totally dirty and smelly, looking like a character out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas crossed between a farmer from rural Mexico. But boy did he seem happy probably the happiest I'd ever seen him as he's back in a crazy country where he belongs.

It was all just great we went to a market where all his expat teaching colleagues hang out. I came at a really good time as it was Dragon Boat Festival so they had the day off so everyone was on party mode. We started drinking at 2pm in the market and just stayed there for about 6 hours escaping the scorching desert heat of the day. We got through 2 crates of 750ml beers 16 bottle for £4! Matt then dropped me off at a massage parlour where I got an hour foot massage for £3! I was completely wasted so it felt like the best massage of my life.

We got a taxi to a different part of town where the bars are and stayed drinking in a novelty airport bar with airplane seats. They were so uncomfortable and have no idea why anyone would want to feel like there in an airplane. I went to a bar across the street to watch the end of the game which I can't even remember who was playing and just walked out without paying for my beer. I still feel terrible and have told Matt to go back and pay the 40p, but foreigners can literally get away with murder here and no one will say anything! Expat syndrome is talked about a lot here where foreigners can behave appallingly because we're treated like kings; it's a really terrible mentality. We ended the night sometime in the morning with Matt carrying me home just like old times and I remembering him saying "same s*** different continent right Kate?" I attempted to reply in some sort of mibberish (mumbled gibberish) which Matt describes how I communicate when I'm in that state.

We woke up and got another massage! This time we went to a blind massage parlour where all the masseuses are blind people which I thought was a really lovely initiative. We paid another £3 for an hour back and neck massage and had some tasty noodles for lunch in the market. I then went back to the place of last night to get another hour foot massage! It was just wonderful. The guy was so nice I wanted to tip him but it's not done here so I gave him a big hug instead. Matt was lovely, I didn't pay a dime when I was there and he even paid for all of my massages. I'm so lucky to have all these friends all in China at the same time.

I flew back to Beijing that even and got the train back the city and stopped at 7/11 to grab some dinner but walked in the door of Nachos apartment where I was welcomed with a big feast of half Spanish and half Chinese food which we ate with chopsticks while we drank Spanish wine from Galacia which Marco brought as a present. It was the best hangover cure. I met Nachos Chinese girlfriend Yun, who was absolutely wonderful and so sweet. She has an MA in Economics and speaks perfect English, and their mix of Chinese and Spanish culture goes surprisingly well together.

I spent my last day frantically shopping in the markets of Beijing and haggled my socks off. The starting prices for things are so ridiculous. £30 for a shot glass, £150 for a t-shirt, £200 for a pair of fake shoes. They really try to push their limits. I had to get back into India mode and remember not to show interest in anything, don't touch anything unless you really want to buy it and always state your price and walk away. They run after you 98% of the time. I met up with Sarah quickly to meet her tutor, Shinly a tiny little Chinese girl, who she has spent most of her year in Beijing with before hitting another market in typical Mom style to buy as much as possible.

I came away with an empty suitcase expecting to fill my days shopping in Japan but no way. They have all the name brands in Tokyo HM, Topshop, Zara but almost double the price. A t-shirt won't be less than £25. So after £150 and a days shopping in Beijing I bought dresses, DVDs, t-shirts, pants, jumpers, bags, underwear, jackets, trainers, jewellery, shoes, everything to last for at least the next two years! My advice to anyone looking for a shopping holiday just get a cheap ticket to Beijing, they go for about £250 round trip I know and spend the whole weekend shopping. Its where all the clothes are made anyway so you can find all the high street stuff but under a different name and really high quality mass produced counterfeit stuff too.

There's a section in the lonely planet guide, China in numbers. One figure is the thousands of fingers lost in Beijing's clothing factories every month. I really don't know what my view is on this. Should you buy the cheapest of the cheap clothing knowing their from a massive Chinese factory or should you buy more expensive clothes to make yourself feel better even though there probably made in the same conditions. There are so many contradictions of the argument.

I also noticed China is the only country that Lonely Planet doesn't rave about, they really highlight the negative aspects of China and most the opinions are very much based on the massive inequality gap. While I was in South East Asia two years a go, I heard so many stories of Lonely Planets confiscated at Chinese borders because they highlight historical events such as Tiananmen Square which no one still knows how many protesters were massacred. Things like these China just tries to pretend never happened, so they re-write history books and censor everything. Facebook, YouTube are banned and they're even trying to ban Google. Where would we be without Google for heavens sakes!

I really enjoyed my short time in China. Much like Japan I wasn't interested in China either, I'd miss all my lectures on Chinese development and history because I knew I could focus on Africa to pass my exams so I thought I'm not going to learn something I'm not interested in, so I came to China with my only reason to see my little sister in enjoying life in her new home and speaking fluent Chinese and that's all I really came to see. I didn't like Beijing at first but it really started to grow on me and seeing how friendly, jubilant and fun the Chinese are has really given me the incentive to return and spend a lot more time travelling around this massive country. I'd love to fly to Moscow, Trans Siberian railway to Ulan-Bator, Mongolia and travel by train down to Hanoi, Vietnam through China. But let's just focus on one trip at a time shall we?