Beijing Day Three and the Train Journey to GuiYang.

Wednesday 29th August 2012

Going to sleep at 4am and waking up at 7am does not result in a particularly satisfying sleep, particularly when we still hadn't heard anything from Georgia. We had waited in the foyer for 3 hours, before deciding to go to sleep as, let's face it, we weren't helping her anymore sitting on the sofas then we would have done sleeping in our beds!

As soon as I woke up, I woke Emma up and then we rushed to Emma and Alex's hotel room to which, thankfully, we found Georgia! She was attempting to wash blood out of her 'I love BJ' top Note: BJ refers to Beijing... and her white shorts. She told us that she had to have four stitches in her head and two injections. She is also sporting a lovely bald patch on her head. Alex then produced a white mesh hat thing that was supposed to be put on Georgia's head to keep the dressing in place. It definitely lightened the tone of the injury as she looked absolutely hilarious in it! We can laugh about it now, but at the time we had to pretend it wasn't that bad to try and get her to wear it. She knew it was that bad. She barely wore it.

Anyway, now that we had found Georgia alive it was time to pack as it was our last day in Beijing. We had a quick breakfast, although Georgia didn't want much so we made it as brief as possible. Our cases were being taken separately down to Guiyang, as there wouldn't be enough room in our train carriages to take them. We all had to make sure they had a lock on them and then they were sent off. We were simply hoping that we would see them again!

Before we caught the train, we went to visit the Summer Palace. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was for, as I wasn't particularly listening to our tour guide it was quite difficult to understand him anyway. I think it is like a holiday retreat for the emperor's families? Anyway, if you really want to know what it is that bad you can google it!

The best way in which I can describe it, is that it is a massive lake with different islands and fancy buildings surrounded by mountains. As we didn't want to be late for our train, we only had about 30 minutes of free time so we didn't get to see much of it. It's so big you could easily waste a day looking at all the breathtakingly beautiful scenery. One of the most interesting things about it, that I can remember, is that the lake and all the mountains are man made! Those emperor's had it good!











We then went on a dragon-shaped boat to get from one of the islands to the other side of the Summer Palace Gardens. Once we got off, we went through some cages filled with bamboo. Because I'm absolutely hilarious(?), I thought I would point into one of the cages and say "Look, it's a panda!" Note: I didn't think anybody would believe me. This lead to the majority of our group looking into the cages to see if they could see the panda! I found this way too funny, particularly the look on their faces after they realised I was joking.

We then saw the stone and marble boat. Apparently it's very well-known, but none of us had ever heard of it! We also saw some turtles swimming around in the lake by the boat which was pretty neat.

Unsurprisingly, we went to another all you can eat for lunch. Luckily, this one had chunky chips! It was the most exciting thing any of us had seen in a long time, particularly as quite a few members of the group were mid-hangover.

Afterwards, we went to a convenience store to get food for our 36 hour train journey ahead of us. Between us we pretty much bought all of the shops:

• Plain/ beef/ chicken instant noodles 
• Oreos
• Crisps
• Water
• Coke

Amongst some other things. Basically, if we recognised it, we bought it! 

We then said goodbye to the coach, which also meant that we had to take all our stuff with us. In the shop, I was to busy worrying that I will be starving and parched that I didn't even think about the fact I had to carry all this stuff to the train, along with my case, my coat and that conical hat I bought at the Great Wall. Adding to this was the scorching hot sun baking us underneath all our layers. Uncomfortable was an understatement. 

Similarly to all the other buildings we had already seen in China, Beijing train station was huge and beautifully decorated on the inside. However, the inside became a mad rush of passport and visa checks pushing against the tide of people swarming the centre of the hall. I have never been somewhere so manic before in my life, it was worse than the tubes in Rome! Adding to this was the pungent smell of sweat and sewage making the wait for the train agonising.

Luckily, we were managed to be booked into what we were told was a 'VIP' room, meaning we were all able to sit down finally! I wouldn't have called it a VIP room though... it was mahoooosive and it seemed like pretty much everyone getting on our train was in there anyway! 

Trying to get on the train itself also proved a challenge in itself. I never thought I'd miss English railways! It was interesting to see that they don't raise the platforms, so we had to climb up step ladders to get on the train. Finally we made it to what we thought was our compartments.

Apparently nothing on this trip was going to go to plan. The tour guide had told us that he had sorted out the compartments so that we wouldn't have to share with anyone we didn't know.  There were four beds to each compartment, so that should have resulted in us having three compartments between the twelve of us. Wrong! Everyone else managed to get compartments together, but Emma and I ended up in a compartment two carriages down to share with two random Chinese people. We couldn't speak Chinese so we had no idea what anybody was saying to us! 

Meanwhile, in the compartment that James and Ben were in, only one of the other passengers had shown up to claim a bed. The tour guide asked him if he minded swapping, I guess he agreed as five minutes later Emma and I were moved into that compartment! It didn't look as if anyone else was going to show up so we thought we were ok. 

We said goodbye to our tour guide and he left us on our way down to the southern city of GuiYang, where we shall start working at the CC English School. Literally as soon as he left the train, some random Chinese man came and claimed one of our beds. With our translator gone, the only thing we could do was to ask Mr and Mrs Smith to see if they could do anything about it! Mr Smith only knew basic Mandarin, so he attempted to sort it out with the guard. Unfortunately, most probably because we couldn't communicate what we wanted to do, the random Chinese man had to stay in our room. James had to take one for the team and go and sleep on the floor of the boys' compartment!

Hi Emma!

We had been travelling along for about ten minutes, when Mr Smith came and informed us that they would be checking our tickets. Now, anyone that knows me can tell you that I constantly misplace things and then get all panicky about where I put it until I find it. This happened with my ticket. I checked my purse, bags, clothes, down the side of my bed, in the pillow cases... pretty much everywhere I could! I genuinely thought I had lost it. My heart sank. If I couldn't find it then I would be kicked off the train. That was a scary thought. I even went back to the other compartment with Emma to see if it had fallen out there! Unfortunately, it hadn't so we just looked like prize idiots trying to explain to strangers why we needed to go into their cabin. To make this even more embarrassing, when we got back to our compartment I double checked my purse, and it was tucked behind one of my cards. My brain never ceases to astound me. I had tipped all the contents of my purse onto my bed, yet I could not see it. Annoying is an understatement.

I don't know if it was the jet lag or the relief of finally being able to rest, but somehow I managed to sleep for 15 hours from 7pm! Thankfully, that meant that about half the journey was over. Also, according to Emma who for once in her life didn't sleep as well as me, random Chinese man left and was replaced twice in the night. Unfortunately, random Chinese man #3 had a hacking cough. At least once every fifteen minutes he had a coughing fit that left me genuinely worried that I would catch swine flu. One of the worst things about it was that he spat his phlegm into a metal bowl left by his bed. This is one of the worst habits that the Chinese have. If any of you go to China and happen to hear someone coughing up a juicy bit of phlegm make sure you know which direction it's coming from pronto to avoid being hit!

The worst bit about the train ride was the toilets. Hands down. There were two toilets; one at the end of each carriage. One was a hole, the other a 'normal' toilet. Another tip to anyone travelling to China would be to avoid 'normal' toilets at all cost! It appeared that nobody knew how to use these toilets, so they weed all over the seat, leading it to drip on the floor. I learnt this the hard way, as my joggers fell in a nice puddle of someones urine. Delightful. Luckily this was after I had had a sleep, so I just got changed into my other clothes!

We passed the last 10 or so hours watching 21 Jump Street and reading until we finally reached GuiYang.

Our welcome to this strange, new city was incredible. Two teachers from CC English School, Terry and Natasha X, along with some others were waiting just outside the train station holding a massive banner welcoming us to GuiYang, and gave us lei's. After such a long journey, it was so lovely to finally feel welcome in a place that is thousands of miles
from home. 

Apologies for the awful quality, it was the only photo I had of the banner!

Beijing Day Two.

Tuesday 28th August 2012

Our second day in the smoggy capital of China begun with a 6:30am wake up call. This was hugely unappreciated and unnecessary. We stumbled through the hotel to the dining area and stuffed our faces with the buffet before slumping back to our rooms to get ready for the day. We were supposed to leave at 7:30, it was nearly 8:30 by the time we were all ready. Seems silly to expect 12 18 year olds to be fully functioning before at least midday. At this point, the few of us that went exploring Beijing last night were beginning to regret not going straight to bed when we got back to the hotel last night. Jet lag is not a fun experience.

However, the early start was definitely worth it to witness my first wonder of the world: The Great Wall Of China at the Mutianyu section. It definitely did not disappoint.

Once the coach had parked and we all clambered out into the forested area and a couple of us spied a Subway. It's so weird how seeing just the smallest piece of westernised culture  can lift our spirits and prevent us being totally alienated in this ginormous country.

On the hill leading up to the ticket counter, there were copious amounts of small market stalls selling a variety of traditional Chinese gifts as well as the standard fake wares! Emma and I both decided on getting a conical hat; not only as a souvenir, but also as a form of shelter from the blazing sun! It was absolutely scorching hot. We were all still working out how the currency worked, and we completely forgot that we could barter the price down, so we paid full price (£8.50). On the other hand, Hamish was trying to barter a 3 yuan bottle of water down to 1 yuan. Naturally, the lady refused. For ages we presumed that nobody was letting us barter because they thought they could get lots of money out of us because we were English. It wasn't until we were handed our tickets that we realised that 3 yuan is the equivalent to 30p. No wonder the lady wouldn't budge on her price!

We were then given the option to walk up to the Great Wall, or to get the cable car up. Quite a few of the others, including Alex and Georgia, were adamant that they wanted to walk it. No way in hell would you catch me doing that! However, everyone's minds miraculously changed when we were asked if we wanted to get the cable car up and toboggan down. Unsurprisingly, we jumped at the chance of doing that. 

Emma and I shared the cable car seat and that was the start of a beautiful friendship blossoming throughout our time in China. I do appreciate a good cable car journey, but I did start to feel uneasy when I looked down and saw a variety of enormous spider webs jumping from tree to tree below us. I do not want to think about the size of the spider that created such a beautiful monstrosity. I am so glad that I did not see it!

It didn't take long to forget about my arachnophobia once we reached our destination. It was so surreal to be standing on top of a man made structure that can be seen from space. The magnitude of the architecture was incredible; you could see miles and miles of undisturbed Chinese nature. The view is surreal.

However, I would not recommend visiting the Great Wall with jet lag, especially if you have a low blood pressure! I could not tell you what made me think that once you got onto the top of the Great Wall it was just a flat walk. Well it isn't. The steps were so steep and I was sweating like a pig, if you excuse the cliche, but it was still amazing! We had to make  pit stops every time we got to one of the watch towers and, eventually, Emma and I just sat down and admired the view, leaving the others to explore the rest... Didn't really see the point in going any further as we would have had to walk back in about 30 minutes anyway! We also inscribed our names into the stone, to be part of history!

Hands down the most exhilarating part of our time in Beijing was going down on the toboggans. It was literally so much fun, it was tempting to go back up just so you could come back down again! I leaped at the chance of going down first. At first I was going really slow, just to annoy the others really, and when the people in front of me finally moved far enough out our way, we all decided to play the game 'no breaks'. It's kinda self-explanatory. The only problem was that we got to the bottom too quickly!

A few of us decided to then go and get a subway. It was relatively cheap and tasted amazing! I was ravenous! Georgia bought me some red fake ray bans as my birthday present... only 3 months late. The phrase 'better late then never' springs to mind. Just kidding Georgia, you know I loved them! 

In hindsight, getting the subway wasn't really worth it as we were literally on our way to another all you can eat restaurant with traditional food. However, maybe it was as it was the last subway I would have for 3 months. Sad times. 

After lunch, we travelled to see the Beijing Olympic Park, which is ironic as I haven't even seen the London Olympic Park yet...

That's me in my new conical hat!

It was so weird experiencing ancient China in the morning and then modern China in the afternoon. As much as I most definitely preferred the experience of going to see the Great Wall, the Olympic Park was fascinating in it's own right. Although, it was a bit off putting when a young boy, I'd hazard a guess at him being about 7 years old, just pulled down his trousers and weed behind a sign. Classy. Oh, don't worry, according to our tour guide that is perfectly normal behaviour. Seems legit.

After this, we went to a gorgeous park with a small lake. Or it could've been a big pond... We found some ducks! At one point we made friends with a little girl who must have been no older than 2. She gave Georgia a flowery stick and her mum was trying to teach her to say 'hello', but she was too shy. Her shoes were literally the coolest things. They were decorated with angry birds and squeaked when she walked, they also had a small whistle tucked away in the bottom. After seeing the young girl come over to us, quite a few other children came over to us, they were fascinated with the way we looked, which is weird because we don't look drastically different. One of the children was a rather chubby boy, about 6 years old, and he walked straight over to us. Georgia said 'Ni Hao' trying to be friendly and he looked like he was going to give her a hug. He didn't. Instead, he started pushing her. Repeatedly. It was absolutely hilarious. Couldn't tell you why he did it, but he did!

After another all you can eat, we made our way back to the hotel and then we all mutually decided to go out as a group to where we went the day before. As we didn't speak Chinese, it was hard to find somewhere where we could get a drink. Eventually, we found a hotel with a rooftop bar where we managed to get some cocktails, and the boys got a few beers... Couldn't tell you what was in them though!

After a couple of drinks, we went to show the people who didn't come with us yesterday the food market. Hamish dared Ollie to try something from one of the stalls. Ollie chose to eat a snake on a kebab stick. Head and everything. So gross.  If anyone fancies trying it, it tastes like calamari apparently! 

After going to McDonalds again, we managed to find an 'Olympic' bar which had a pint of beer for the equivalent of £1. I only had the one pint as I was literally falling asleep at the bar. However, about half the others were about to drink enough that they will definitely regret it in the morning!

I left at around 12ish with a couple of others to go to sleep. Despite the fact that Georgia was the only sober one left, she decided to stay out with the others to make sure they all got back to the hotel ok. This is totally ironic now. I got back, crawled into bed and slowly started drifting to sleep.

The next thing I know, at about 12:45 there was a knock at my door. I presumed it was Georgia being to lazy to get her room key out, so I ignored it at first. The knocking got more and more frantic so I pulled myself out of bed and answered the door. It was Emma. I was not expecting her. It wasn't good news either.

Georgia had been hit on the head with an empty glass tankard thrown by one of the boys in our group. Noone, apart from me, was really sober enough to go to the hospital with her and Mr/ Mrs Smith. I have never panicked so much in my life. I grabbed the first pair of shoes I came across and ran to the hotel foyer to find that Alex had gone with her. At least she wasn't on her own.

Now came the waiting. By now I had no idea what to do, I felt so lost in this foreign country. I wanted to go home.

Beijing Day One.

China. A place I never thought I would be visiting in the near future, let alone spending three months there! However, when the opportunity arose for me and eleven other students in my school year to spend our gap year teaching English at CC English School  in GuiYang, Guizhou province, I decided that it was an opportunity that I dare not refuse.

-quick note- 

Yes, I realise three months doesn't really qualify as a 'Gap Year'. Before I start, I will state that there were two reasons to why I did not stay the full 9 months out in China. 
1. Events that took place in Beijing led me and a few others to feel extremely unsafe and rather uncertain of what might happen if we stayed in China for a long time. (Don't want to spoil the surprise. I will explain in due course!)
2. Our visa renewals were rejected anyway. 

The obvious place to start is the beginning. August 27th 2012. Three days in the heart of China's capital city. Beijing. It's safe to say that these three days were nothing like we had anticipated. 

I'm gonna spare you the details and skip the mundane 12 hour plane journey and delve straight into the action. We landed at 6:30am and despite most of us not getting much sleep on the plane, we cracked on with our whistle-stop tour of Beijing. 

We went to our hotel, which I believe was a seven days inn? If any of the China lot read this feel free to correct me... and tucked into a buffet style breakfast. However, considering we were half way around the world, the meat was didn't particularly taste as expected... It felt safer to stick to the noodles! They had tinned peaches though which made Emma happy!

We then walked down to Tiananmen Square with our lovely tour guide, can't really remember his name, obviously didn't make a massive impression! He then informed us that what we were walking on see picture below was in fact temporary toilets. Nice. Real nice. I still don't know if he was joking or not, I really hope he was!

After that juicy bit of information, we literally crossed the road and reached Tiananmen Square. Now, after learning about the 'tank man' and all the bad stuff that was happening there, I expected to see like a memorial or something cool to look at, instead there was just a massive plasma screen up in the middle amongst what looked like a normal street. There was literally nothing there to suggest that it plays an important part in China's history gotta love a bit of communist oppression... 

It then decided to rain. Hard. The good thing was that I was the only one that bought an umbrella with me. So prepared. Hamish decided to trust a 10 yuan equivalent of about £1 flimsy umbrella from some random old woman selling them on the street. I think it broke in approximately 3 minutes? Worth it.

We then made our way up to the entrance of the Forbidden City. It was hard to ignore the massive portrait of Mao Tse-tung placed right at the entrance, almost daring you to enter and looking over you in a way that reminded me of 'Big Brother' in George Orwell's novel, Nineteen eighty-four. 

The buildings themselves were architecturally astonishing, it was literally like stepping into a film. I had never been to any Asian country before, so my first impression was that the sheer beauty of the buildings were outstanding. The novelty wore off after I had been there a couple of days and looked around copious amounts of temples that I genuinely couldn't remember what they were for a couple of hours after going, let alone over a year! 

As a massive fan of the film Karate Kid (the newer one in particular) definitely didn't watch that for the first time because Justin Bieber's song Never Say Never was played at the end. I really do wonder what used to go round my teenage self's head. I couldn't resist doing what Jaden Smith did and touch the gold spheres on the door for good luck anyone that knows me well knows I am full of bad luck so I like to grasp any opportunity that comes my way. At first I thought I wasn't going to be able to do this as they were all covered up, sad times. But a bit later on, I found one that I could reach. What an interesting story that was.

This is the part where I have to apologise for my waffle. I did plan to bash out Beijing in one blog post, however it is getting long already so I think I may just have to separate this out into two or three different posts. Not that anyone is even reading my blogs so this don't matter. I am literally just plopping my thought stream onto paper. It's a grand way to procrastinate, degrees are so much effort. Anyway, moving on.

The Forbidden City was absolutely beautiful, as you can tell by the photos down below, but I definitely wouldn't rush back. If you are going to Beijing for the first time I would definitely recommend going there, however, now I don't know if this was because I was seriously tired thanks to jet lag I just thought it was a bit repetitive! I don't know how much it cost to get in here because it was all included in our tour price, which we paid up front with our plane tickets etc. Every time we went through another building and out in to another courtyard, it literally felt like we hadn't gone anywhere different. Occasionally, there might be a river and a bridge but generally, it was very consistent until the last one. 

   

During our visit here, our lovely little tour guide informed us about the place. I cannot for the life of me remember what he said about it. I tend to zone out after about 30 minutes

5 minutes of someone talking to me. Probably why my blog posts are so all over the place!

So that pretty much sums up the Forbidden City really, by the time we had been there for about just under an hour we had all given up and were slumped down looking like moody english tourists. Promise we were just tired!

Our mood was then lifted with the promise of FOOD. We travelled to a small place which, apparently, has been kept purposefully to look like a traditional Chinese village. We got off our minibus and then clambered onto the rickshaws. For those of you who don't know what a rickshaw is, it's basically a 2 seater carriage type vehicle pulled along by a bike. I did have some photos of Georgia and I in one somewhere... but I have no idea whereabouts they've ended up!

We were then taken round streets where we also had a little mini tour, and learned a bit about Chinese culture. We then ended up at our destination, which was a small Chinese home with two tables. The food was immense. There were so many tasty dishes, some of them spicy others not. Unfortunately, quite a few of them had nuts in so James didn't have much to eat at all! They had quite a few pet turtles that were very sweet! Although they were kept in small open boxes which doesn't seem particularly legit, but then again they could just be for show!

After finishing lunch, a few of us decided to go to the toilet before getting back into the rickshaws to go back to the minibus. The tour guide took us to go and find them, as they were away from the house. In this kind of traditional Chinese community, they have a shared block of toilets, rather than a toilet or hole per home. Nothing could've prepared me for what I was about to witness. You could smell the toilets long before you turn the corner to the street that they were on. Walking into the ladies loos, you can see about 16 cubicles with walls that come up about knee high to separate the holes. I forgot to mention that I was wearing a playsuit, which would have required me to strip off in front of not only my friends, but a few random Chinese ladies, whom I have seen more of than I care to have ever seen of any lady. By this time the pungent stench of human excretion had begun to make my eyes water, so we walked back to where we came from, hoping to come across some fresh air from somewhere to relieve our lungs.

Temple of Heaven was the next sight for the 12 of us to see on our first day in Beijing. As we were walking from the minibus to the entrance, we came across what we thought was a play park. So, being the mature 18 year olds we all were, we decided that it would be a nice break to have a play in the park! However, when we got closer it appeared to be more of an exercise area rather than a play area. As Emma and I were rather tired, we decided to sunbathe instead of playing to which we both nearly fell asleep. 

We then made our way through the grounds to the temple itself. The use of the reds, greens and golds tangled in the extravagantly decorated architecture is breath taxingly stunning. We weren't allowed in the actual temple, but members of the public can look inside, although it was rather dark, so I had no idea what was in there!

As we had about an hour to kill before dinner, we stayed in the temple grounds for a while. This is where the tour guide taught us what he described as 'Chinese badminton' not overly sure on the reliability of the name. The game basically consists of a something that looks like a shuttlecock, feathers attached to what looked like a couple of washer. The aim of the game is to keep this in the air by kicking it. Safe to say that we were all rubbish at first but, after a while, we started to get the hang of it!

The restaurant we ate at for dinner wasn't unlike a Chinese restaurant in England. It was an all you can eat with a round wheel in the middle to allow everyone on the table to try things. I was so happy to see that duck pancakes were on the menu tonight, although I was gutted that there was no sweet and sour sauce! The other dishes all tasted similar to dishes you would find at an English Chinese all you can eat, however the food here was much tastier and slightly spicier!

We were then asked if we wanted to go and see a famous Kung Fu show, however we al turned it down as it was quite expensive and we would have probably fallen asleep during the show! Once we had had a bit of a rest, a few of us felt a bit perkier so Mr Smith took us around Beijing and showed us the food market.

It was not like I had expected. They literally had deep fried everything. A few examples I can think of off the top of my head are:

• Tarantula
• Scorpion
• Seahorse
• Snake
• Octopus 
• Starfish
• Cockroaches
• Millipedes
• Dog meat stew
• Lamb testicles
• Dog testicles

And the list goes on... so gross! The smell was absolutely horrendous. I can't believe people genuinely bought food there to enjoy. We were told we strongly advised not to take photos of the food, as some of it was illegal as they were deep frying endangered species! Seems legit! However, I did manage to sneak a few snaps, just to prove that this place actually exists! They're quite blurry though, as I was doing it on the sly.

After this horrendous ordeal, we decided to get some comfort food from a McDonalds we had spotted earlier. It is complete bull that McDonalds is the same which ever country you are in, similar is a more appropriate adjective. They had burgers with black and white buns, wraps with purple and green bread amongst some other strange items. However, it did bring us some satisfaction knowing that we were closer to western society than we had been 10 minutes before.

We then made our way back to the hotel after what felt like the longest day of my life to get some well-deserved sleep after our first hectic day in China.

Introduction.

I have been dabbling in the Blogger universe for a while now, although I didn't start physically writing blogs until October last year. I have now come to the conclusion that I want to start blogging 'properly' and focusing my work onto one topic.The only topic that I felt I could write comfortably, and enthusiastically about is travel.

As a young child, I did not venture out of the comforts of the UK. It wasn't until I reached 13 years old when I finally stepped into an airport and set off to explore another country. In this case, it was Lanzarote. Ever since then, I have been anticipating the next place I will travel to. 

This blog will be dedicated to sharing my various past, and hopefully future, adventures with the lucky few who are interested or bored enough to look through my posts.