Welcome to Beijing
The first destination of my lustrous journey had arrived at my feet. As the plane engines died, and the burning rubber of its wheels screeched to a halt, I felt my heart pumping the adrenaline through my bloodstream like a race horse ready to leap into action. The excitement rushed through me as I paced through Beijing Airport, ready to find my awaiting taxi driver and begin exploring the expansive city.
Unfortunately, the exploration was put on hold due to some minor complications. First of all, I forgot to fill in my arrival card when queueing for customs. So, after waiting for a good 20 minutes, I had to go to the back of the queue and start again, following the confusing hand gestures of the Chinese security attendant. Not a fantastic start, but eventually I was officially out of “no mans land” and onto Chinese soil. Then there was the difficulty of locating my taxi driver. As he was not where I was advised he would be, you can imagine I was a little stressed, having just landed in a distant, confusing country with very little understanding of the English language.
Perhaps this is a good time to note; if you ever decide to visit China (do it, it is a beautiful country) then you should be prepared to use a lot of hand gestures, unless you speak Cantonese or Mandarin. Otherwise, you will be frequently misunderstood.
Anyhow, after a quick phone call with a rather large language barrier to the taxi companies head office, I was redirected to the correct location of my awaiting taxi driver, as well as my first encounter with fellow travellers. I shared my taxi drive into the city centre with two Norwegian girls, who as it turned out, would be joining me on my 2-week G Adventures tour through the heart of China. It was a very pleasant drive in the summer heat of the Beijing sunshine, as Tia, Tariel and I shared previous travel stories and got to know each other. They had been travelling together for nearly a month, arriving in China after first travelling through India together. Their tales and stories only boosted my excitement for the experiences I knew I had lying ahead for me.
After gazing out of the window at all the impressive, modern high risers protruding from the pavements around us, we had arrived at the Jade Hotel, where we would later be meeting the rest of our travelling family for the next two weeks.
For low budget accommodation, the Jade Hotel is certainly a decent choice. Very clean and tidy, with a free breakfast buffet every morning and adequate facilities, it’s a great choice for backpackers, and is also located very close to the Forbidden City and other famous landmarks.
On our G Adventures tour, everyone shared a twin room with another person. If you are a couple and intend to travel together with this excellent tour company, you will naturally be provided with a double bed, or a twin room if you are just friends (or even just pretending to be). However, if you are like me, you will be sharing a room with a new friend of the same sex. So, when I entered my room in the Jade Hotel, I had Doug waiting to greet me. Doug was a lovely chap from Australia, who would be my bunk buddy for the majority of my time in China. He had already been in Beijing for three days, exploring various landmarks and cultural sites. In fact, he was on his way out the door to continue exploring when we were first introduced! I had other plans however.
SHOWER. FOOD. SLEEP.
Due to the 13-hour journey and excessive time difference, I was dirty, hungry (borderline hangry) and massively jet lagged. So, once showered, I found a local noodle bar that provided me with my first real “Chinese” meal. I remember being sat in that tiny noodle bar, watching as the customers came and went, and just thinking to myself, “China is nuts.” It’s just such a crazy, busy, fast paced city where everyone loves soy sauce on their food. It seems almost sacred to them!
After an oversized pot of noodles was digested, the 3-hour nap was pure bliss, even if it was interrupted by the house cleaning team hoovering the room an hour in. What is the point of a “do not disturb” card if you don’t acknowledge it?
Full of food and refreshed with sleep, I was ready to meet my tour group. We all gathered in the Jade Hotels restaurant, sat in a circle like we were in a study group, or an AA meeting. Once our tour guide Richard had introduced himself and told us all about the thrilling trip we had waiting for us, we went around the circle and introduced ourselves. What a lovely bunch of people I had the pleasure to travel with, from all corners of the globe. Whether it was the U.K, Germany or the United States, we had a wonderfully mixed bag of nationalities among us, with plenty of cultural differences to discuss. Richard, our tour guide, was from China, so he found it easy to answer any of our questions about the country, the people or any other cultural queries we had.
Throughout the entire trip, Richard really was a fantastic tour guide. I will be reviewing G Adventures in a separate post, but if you are ever looking to do a short tour through a country of your choice, G Adventures really are fantastic. While all your accommodation, travel and a selection of meals are sorted for you, your tour guide will also always be from the country you are travelling, giving you a true experience of the people in your chosen destination.
Once our induction was finished, we all headed out for dinner at a nearby restaurant, serving traditional Chinese food. We were also accompanied by the second half of our tour group. They had already been travelling with Richard for the past two weeks, beginning in Hong Kong and heading up through the western side of China to Beijing. Naturally, more introductions were necessary before tucking into our food.
If you live in the U.K and love a good Chinese, GO TO CHINA. The food, with no exaggeration, is unbelievable. Sticky rice with a selection of meats, fried vegetables, soup and noodles; it was pure heaven. I’ve never had food quite like it, and between the spiced beans and the duck rolls, I was in love.
The delicious food was also well washed down with 3 large Singha beers, and then there was the Rice Wine. If you’ve never had this stuff before, BEWARE. It is POTENT. I had two shots and was pretty wasted from the point on. Don’t get me wrong it tastes like poison, but my word. If you want a cheap night out, this stuff is cheaper than chips and you only need about 4 shots to be a drunken mess, maybe 5 if you’re a heavy weight.
Its safe to say that the walk back to the hotel was more of a swaying stumble, but we all agreed to have a couple more drinks before bedtime. Richard decided to head to bed early for the next day,
but it gave me a chance to get to know my tour buddies a little more, as well as remember their names, which is always a struggle for me.
From the group that had already been travelling together, there were great characters, like Connor and Sarah from Ireland and Sophie and Charlotte from England. From our own OG group, there was Dan and Charlotte from Birmingham; Kate and David from Ireland, Caroline from Scotland, Vonnie from the states, Sherie from Manchester, Doug of course, and Isabelle and Alex. Isabelle was from Australia, where she had met Alex, who was Italian.
One night was no where near enough time to get to know them all, but I had plenty of time to do so. Not only did I get to know all of these delightful people very well, but some of them became friends that I will cherish for the rest of my life. They say that you make friends forever when you travel, but you don’t really understand that until you experience it yourself. Many adventures waited for us all to share together, and in the end, I couldn’t have chosen a better group of individuals to share them with.
Really interesting and well written. You should write a book – accompanied with your amazing photos I’m sure it would do well. Look forward to the next blog.
Thanks Graham, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I will consider writing the book! 🙂
Such an interesting read darling. Your sister is missing you massively but what an adventure. Xx ps bring me home some rice wine ? xx