Ni Hou! After having a teary goodbye from Sydney, a two and a half hour delay for "engine problems", and a 12 hour flight, I got off to a bit of a rocky start with the Asian leg of my trip. The part I was most worried about (getting from the airport to the hotel) ended up being the easiest! I arrived at the hotel at 12:30 am, about four hours later than was expected. Check in was relatively easy...until they gave me the wrong room and I walked in on two girls sound asleep. Eventually I got to my room, where I took a quick shower and attempted to sleep. Lillian, my trip leader, had left a note at reception for the late comers (i guess there were about 8 of us), saying that the next day would be a free day and on friday we could meet up in the morning for a day trip somewhere if we wanted.

I woke up Thursday morning feeling a bit more refreshed and prepared myself for a day exploring the city! It was absolutely freezing there, atleast compared to the weather I have been used to for the past three months, so I bundled up with full leg spandex, jeans, three shirts, two jackets and a scarf. I had been given a sort of Intrepid welcome pack when I arrived, and it had a map of the main part of Beijing, but not where we were actually staying so I was officially on my own. I decided to turn left (it felt right?) and started walking down the street. I dont want to sound like the stupid american I am stereotyped as most of the time....but I expected there to be a lot more English. I can understand maybe 1% of all the signs here...and finding someone who actually speaks English is a rarity. I ended up walking for about 20 minutes and eventually finding my way onto my map! Now it was time to search for food....

I never thought getting lunch would be so daunting. The menus are all in Chinese, most of them with no hints whatsoever at what you might be ordering. Once you do order something, if the waiter/cashier needs to ask you any questions you have a problem. I searched for a while trying to find a place that had pictures on their menu. I found a couple but, to be honest, lost my nerve at actually entering. I ended up in a mall, where there was a place filled with locals, but they had one of all their dishes "preserved" up front, so all I had to do was point at something that slightly resembled chicken and hope for the best....it wasnt chicken, but it tasted good, was extremely cheap and filling!

After my success at finding lunch, I was ready to conquer my first tourist attraction...The Forbidden City. It is where all the emporer's lived and got its name from the fact that commoners weren't allowed in it for 500 years. I made my way to one side of it (its huge and surrounded by a moat) but turns out you cant enter from that side so I started making my way around. I decided to stop for a bit near the moat and write in my journal before I continued on when something strange started happening...multiple times chinese people would pass me and be absolutely fascinated by my writing that they would stop, stare and often start remarking to whoever they were with at the time and point at me and laugh. It was very disconcerting. Even a small child stopped and just stared at me in wonderment, his mother couldn't get him to move on. This is something I have gotten used to in the past two days (it is much worse for blonde girls, so thanks Mom and Dad!). Eventually I got to correct Forbidden City entrance, got a ticket for it, and wandered through it. It was huge, and every pretty with temples and such. I am going to upload my photos after this. Just a warning, I had my camera on "color swap" for some reason so there is a bit of a purple-ish twinge to the photos that wasnt actually there but you get the drift. Once I exited on the other side, I went into this park that had a great look out point from the top. I was getting a bit tired so I started heading back to the hotel...I got a bit lost since I was off the map again BUT i found my way through my amazing sense of direction and once again felt extremely pleased with myself.