Day 0 and Day 1 of our trip was spent travelling and getting to meet our tour comrades.  

We flew from Heathrow to Beijing direct.  Air China could compete with Ryanair for legroom.  Even Angela struggled as she had a huge metal plane component bolted to the floor in front of her.  We spent the 10 hour flight next to Rip Van Winkle's sister which meant, unless we woke her (which being polite English people we didn't like to do) we were trapped in our seats.  We got off of the flight bent double, knees aching from lack of use, and very stiff.

China is big on security.  There are police, soldiers and security men everywhere.  CCTV is prolific.  Just to get out of the airport we had to show and scan our passports 3 times and have our luggage scanned (we've had to do that since too!)

Once we were past customs we scanned through the hundreds of names being held up by hundreds of drivers but our name wasn't there......our driver was in the toilet!

Boy he was fast! We had to chase him through the airport as he sped away with Angela's suitcase. The driving was fast too, weaving his way through the traffic and torrential rain like he was Lewis Hamilton.

He proudly showed us a £1 coin he had been given by a previous customer. We gave him some more English coins for his collection. He particularly liked the 50p coin. Before long we were at hotel (in one piece).

Just as we were drifiting off to sleep (actually Alan was snoring) our Tour Guide called to say that we should be at our welcome meeting. We dashed down to meet our group who are a mixed bunch from the UK and USA.

After dinner Richard, our guide, took us along with another couple to a local restaurant for dinner (the rest of the group chosing to stay in the hotel). It was good food, plentiful and cheap at £13 for the two of us.

By now we were really flagging, and it didnt take us long to get to sleep, Alan especially !!