Red Lantern House Beijing

So....having said goodbye to the luxury and calm of OZ we felt ready to tackle the challenges of China. From our experiences so far I think we may have underestimated how many there would be! After the fairly long flight we arrived into Beijing around 8pm. We passed up the option of a very expensive airport pickup and found ourselves successfully navigating our way around the sprawling city on the most packed bus we have ever been on - faces literally squashed against the window - ideal reall...

Unlike back home the streets here are already buzzing with activity with vendors selling their wares from the back of bicycles, street stalls cooking up a variety of early morning snacks, people ball room dancing and others heading off for a little Ti Chi and some people walking backwards. Now the ball room dancing is a little weird but perhaps acceptable if that is your thing but the walking backwards, which I first saw in Chongqing and took it as a one off, had me do a double take. On seein...

We were on a roll having made all our connections to and from rome, settled into our executive seats, Nick duly showed me how to move my chair into a bed and I was happy as a clam at the thought that i was finally going to get some sleep. And we did, 6 hours of it (only to be woken up for a 3 cuorse breakfast i really didn't need!) On our slow descent from 40,000 feet it finally began to hit us that what was below us was China. The hot pilot from net jets we bumped into on the flight was a si...

At 5am William called us out of our sleep...in about 5 minutes flat we were dressed and sipping the home brewed coffee, scoffing down a croissant and getting our best friends, our walking sticks, together to set off with Lao Huh on our final trek, the sunrise trek. I left this last time by saying we were going up regardless of the weather forecast. But, the stars still on our side it seems, it was the clearest sky we had had since our arrival and up we went to that first tower of our first da...

Just landed in Beijing. Customs was much easier than expected, it reminded me of Europe. I found my car service in front of Starbucks ("Welcome to China!") and am not sitting in the backseat while a man and young woman talk in Chinese in front of me. The only thing the girl has said to me has been "Do you like Wayne Rooney?" I told her yes, but that I like Steven Gerrard of Liverpool best, but I don't think she got it. The radio plays a mix of American music and Chinese (Jewel's "Who Will Sav...

Entry containing 5 photos titled: Beijing Airport, Beijing Airport, Beijing Airport, Beijing Airport, Beijing Airport

DAY 1 - 30 June 2005 We arrived at Beijing airport amidst a huge crowd of Chinese waiting to welcome loved ones home, each waving a name-sign, searching for a familiar face. Just as we were lamenting how cool it would be if someone was waving our name I heard a familiar Scots voice shout "Nicola!" - Yay! It was Ron (username irax; on round the world travel) who had come to meet us at the airport and he had brought a taxi to meet us - and the taxi driver actually had been waving our name sign!...