Holiday Inn Chang An West Beijing

Our flight to Beijing felt longer than our trip to Singapore. We were flying this time on an older plane, which didn't have the entertainment options that the last plane did. Much like my last trip, the breakfast was the exact same as it was on the flight before. We arrived in Beijing without too much turbulence (unlike the plane to Singapore) although the sudden, steep descent to the airport caused us all stomach aches. Our plane, which was less than half full anyway, didn't take long to dis...

Today we were able to sleep in. We took advantage of the fact that we had no immediate plans, so we opted for a later breakfast. Breakfast was a buffet of a mixture of traditional Chinese food and western food like pancakes. After we finished, we went back to our room to clean our teeth before we set outside. We wanted to go back to the SIM card shop as the cards weren't working. It was freezing outside compared to the heated hotel rooms, so Laura and Elyse, who were wearing t-shirts, were un...

Today, we again slept in quite late. We planned to get on a train and go to a bit further away. It turned out to be a 40 min train trip. We bought the train tickets and went dtown to the platform. We got on the overcrowded train, just managing to squeeze through the door. It was so squishy, but we made sure that we wore our bags on our front so that nobody could grab anything from our bags. We managed to get to the right station, feeling quite proud of ourselves. It really doesn't take much t...

Today was our first day of school. It was so nerveracking. We walked into the school with Sammy at 7:30am, the start of their school day. I usually get up at that time! We walked into class, and were surprised and delighted to see that we were in the same class as last year, with the same students as last year. I think they were expecting us as they gave us presents and showered us with affection. For awhile they rearranged the desks for Laura and I to sit among them. The desks are tiny! I ha...

Today was school again, but we are not yet used to the early starts. We went to school via taxi and arrived on time. Today we brought lots of little koalas holding Australian flags, boomerangs, and wearing vests that said "I love Australia!" We gave them out to the delighted kids in our class. Our first class was maths, which was working with ratios and scales. It's fun to do maths in another country, and to know the way that they write 'cm', 'm' and 'km'. Our next class was English where the...

We woke up late today, so breakfast and getting ready was a rush. We were late to school, although the classes hadn't started just yet. Before class had begun, some students stood at the front of the room and conducted everybody as they read from their text. From there, the Chinese national anthem was played over the speaker, and everybody was saluting the front of the classroom. Our maths class was the first again. I found it amazing, the sums that they could do in their head, at their age. ...

Today we woke up up really early, at 5am. We didn't want to be late again. School starts at 8am but the children arrive at 7.30 make sure they are ready. We like to be there at 7.30 too. We went to breakfast as soon as it opened, at 6am. There were ************e there. We got ready and hailed some taxis to school. The driving here is crazy! We see buses everyday doing a U-turn in the middle of the street packed with cars, narrowly missing people walking on the footpath. Cars forget to use ind...

Today was our last day of school :( It was do sad to say good-bye to everyone. We arrived at school freezing. It was raining and the classrooms were so cold. Dad, James and Craig went to a dental surgery where Dad worked on Ian Knowles's teeth. They were very thankful. It was so sad to walk out of the school for the last time again, thinking that you will never see those kids again. Even if we did come back next year, they will be in middle school. We went via taxi back to the otel and came u...

Today we had what we now consider a sleep in- a 7:30am start. We got ready and for once, had a quite leisurely breakfast. There were no set tours or anything today, but there was a reason behind this; Collingwood plays today. Don't think that just because we are in another country does not mean that we won't watch the football. As China is 3 hours behind Australian time, meant that the game started at around 11am, our time. We caught a train to the transfer station and from there to another s...

Today we had another early start. We gathered at 8am in the lobby to meet out tour guide for the day. Today was our first day of "sight-seeing". Our guide was named Shirley, and she was going to take us to the Summer Palace, on a Hutong tour and to see an acrobatics show. We had our own mini bus. Our first stop was the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is the place here the Emperor's dowager lived in summer(appropriately enough. She built the palace during the period of time when she had more ...