I woke up in the apartment at 6am, I had only got to sleep at 4am after having some drinks for Jordan's birthday so as you can imagine I was pretty sleepy. I was also very reluctant to rise as it dawned on me that I was awaking to solitude. Not before seeing Brian and Laura in January would I see another person I knew. I realized that for the first time ever I would be completely alone and if I was being honest it kind of scared me. I also knew however that I had a plane to catch so I got up, had a shower and took a taxi to the airport.
The flight was delayed for 1 hour 45 minutes so Bangkok airport received the full treatment. When I finally boarded the plane I realized why the gentleman at check in had smirked when I asked for a free upgrade; my section of the plane was almost empty. This made for a comfortable trip and I also found my anxiety retreated and was replaced by excitement.
When I arrived in Beijing there was only one thing I noticed. It's huge, it's imposing, it's exactly what everyone says it is, it's the smog! Visibility was ridiculously poor, it was bad enough that you could stare at the sun and it was no brighter than an amber traffic light. I arrived at the hostel at about 7pm totally shattered. I had something to eat and drink and turned out the light on my first day as a sole traveler.
For my first bit of sight seeing in Beijing I decided to visit the Olympic Stadium or the Bird's Nest. I made my way across town on the subway (20p for any journey) and walked out of the station and just managed to spot the stadium through the thick blanket of smog.
I had read that the Bird's Nest makes a lot more sense when you see it in person and it's true. The entangled metal beams of the giant structure have an almost natural feel as well as camouflaging stairs and escalators. I looked around the stadium for a while which inside was a lot smaller than I expected an Olympic stadium to be then headed to the Lama Temple.
I didn't spend much time here. The lamasery which is home to Mongolian and Tibetan monks has rooms full of Buddha statues. However, after Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam I was feeling 'templed out' and the enthusiasm was wearing thin. So instead I spent most of the afternoon strolling around Ditan Park. In the evening I chilled at the hostel and arranged to go to the Summer Palace the following day with a couple of girls I had met.

Firstly let me apologise for the delay in updates, I've been an extremely busy boy these last few weeks.

01/10/2009 National Day

One thing I didn't realise when I booked this trip was that I would be in Beijing for National Day. A celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic by Mao Zedong. So October 1st 2009 and the days that followed were some of the most intense I have ever experienced.

Firstly, the amount of people that were in Beijing for the festival was ridiculous. China has a population of 1.3 billion, at least half of them must have been in the capital or so it seemed. It's hard to describe the sheer volume of people. Sidewalks turned into motorways, the people; cars during rush hour traffic.

The celebrations around a parade passing Tiananmen Square. As well as 200'000 soldiers that marched the route, the latest in tanks, aircraft and other military vehicles were on display. Later floats representing various Chinese industries took centre stage and the event was closed with a gigantic street performance and firework display ten times as big as the Olympic opening ceremony. The only negative to this and a fairly big negative to be fair was that no one was allowed to go and view the event. 30'000 tickets were handed out to China's elite, everyone else was told to stay indoors and watch the occasion on TV. Local residents were even told to refrain from opening any windows facing the parade as they could get shot. With all this in mind Cat, Maddie and I decided to head out of town and visit the Summer Palace.

It was here that I witnessed the perfect image of a country with a vast amount of history and culture trying it hardest to modernise and catch up to the western world; hoards of people entering the Summer Palace gates with Big Macs and large fries.

The Summer Palace is a wonderful place and along with everything else in China it's of a grand scale. It was used by royalty as a summer retreat and we were there for 5 hours and only saw half of it. It's way better than the restaurant in Birkenhead that dad keeps banging on about. During the evening we had a dumpling party at the hostel followed by some drinks.

The next day I had to change hostel. The location of the new one was great, just 10 minutes south of Tiananmen Square and close to a busy shopping street. It was here that I saw another great example of China, this time the cheap imitations China loves to produce. It was an old style, overhead powered tram, only this was battery powered and there was no overhead rail. During the evening I went to Tiananmen Square and instead of the concrete desert I expected to see the floats from the previous day's parade were on show. After seeing those I walked around Beijing's main shopping street for a bit of window shopping. Cigarettes are so cheap in China, £1.50 for a pack of 20 Marlboro. I was seriously tempted to start smoking as it felt like I would actually save money with fags being so cheap.

The next day I went to the Temple of Heaven Park and the former biggest shopping centre in Asia then the Beijing lifestyle caught up with me. I hit the wall and I hit it hard. I went back to the hostel for a nap and watched Jackass the Movie. I realised that this is one of my favourite things to do with James. 'Stop laughing so loud, you'll wake up mum and dad!'

Sunday 4th October was the day my GAP tour started. After waiting around the hostel till 3 so I could collect my laundry I made my way across the city to the starting hotel. Now, already on the trip I had learnt plenty of little things that a traveller will pick up during their journey but it was during the taxi to the hotel that I had my first BIG learning experience; always carry a roll of toilet paper with you. I'll leave the rest of the story to your magnificent imaginations!

After meeting the other people on the tour I have to say I was pretty disappointed. People I had spoke to had told me about groups of 20 year old girls all looking for travelling romance on these GAP tours. Instead of this I was given a few youngsters and seven 60 year old Canadians. Salt was rubbed into the wounds the next day when another GAP group started full of 20 year old girls. However the following couple of days changed my mind. The Canadians were really nice and seasoned travellers with plenty of stories from around the world. Plus I would be surrounded by 20 somethings for the rest of the year; it would do me good to interact with people of a different age group. So the holiday romances and Canadian jokes would have to be put aside for 3 weeks and I would take as much as possible from the group and China.

Our first day of the tour started with a bang; the Great Wall. We arrived at the Mutianya section of the wall at about 8:30am, a great decision by our tour leader Frank. The wall was empty; we practically had it to ourselves for about 30 minutes. We walked (and climbed) to tower 20 and marvelled at the views along the way before most of the tourists arrived. The structure really is amazing, twisting and turning across the tops of the mountains. It's hard to think how it was constructed as well as how soldiers lived up there through blistering winters and scorching summers. I tried desperately to soul search and ponder life's great questions when on the top of the Wall but it was no good. All I could think of was how happy I was that the boots got their first run out. After a couple of hours on the Wall we took a toboggan down to the bottom which was great fun and returned to the hotel. That evening I went to dinner with some of my new Canadian friends and returned to the Olympic centre. This turned out to be a really good idea as the Bird's Nest and Aquatic centre looked miles better illuminated at night.

The next day I walked around the Forbidden City and in the evening went for an authentic Peking Duck dinner. Duck in pancakes is my favourite meal ever! I wasn't disappointed in the meal, I was however surprised at the quality if the Chinese food back home. I would even say I prefer the Mei Mei banquet to the one I had in Beijing. One thing that cannot be compared though is the price; £5.50, a bargain. After the meal we headed to the train station and caught out overnight train to Xi'an.