Capital

18/08/09- 1.20am Beijing

We're here! After nearly two years of planning, saving and organising we have actually started our adventures!!

The last few weeks have been an adventure in themselves, moving out of our beloved Horder Close and becoming teenagers again back with our parents! We have had meals cooked and washing cleaned for us, so now we have to learn to fend for ourselevs again!

We spent 10 hours on a plane from London that chased the sun, leaving us with little darkness and a pretty terrible night's sleep trying to make a right angled piece of metal a comfortable bed (Tara and Gary seemed to manage that, but we had no Sabuca to hand so found it impossible).

When we got off the plane at 9.30am in an overcast Beijing it was 2.30am back home. This is where the adventure began! Having cleared customs uneventfully we made our way to the shuttle bus service detailed on the hotel voucher. Unfortunately the infpo on the boards did not make a lot of sense to us so we mustured our best Mandarin (pointing at the guide book and looking confused) and got help. We understood to take the bus 3 stops along. We boarded with the most ridiculously oversized bags and I hurt a small child by setting mine down on his foot. he git his own back by eating cackers with his mouth open for most of the journey.

We counted he stops meticulously, and having qualifications in mathematics I like to think successfully, but when we goy off there was no information or assistance to confirm this fact.

At this point our sense of adventure kicked in and so we decided to walk around and ask for directions from security guards (Beijing has a plethora of them!) We felt we were getting closer, everyone kept giving us similar advice, when we found ourselves at a tourist information desk. We assume they were all trying to send us here rather than the "Yes, you are close, you clever English people" that we had hoped for. The tourist office looked at us shocked and confuse: "It's a long way, would you like to take a taxi?" A little disheartened that we were not so good at finding our way with impressive independence we said yes and waited for her to call one for us. She stared at us blankly then told us that taxis drive on the roads in Beijing, and maybe if we went outside we would hae more success in finding one.

As we walked around the humid streets with a small flat packed into the bags on each of our backs and our shoes rubbing quite painfully now, we really started to appreciate what the next ten months have in store for us. So, between some grumpiness and a few snaps, mostly from the (ashamed to say) more anally retentive of the two ("why do you keep brething like that!?!") we casped hands and had wide grins start to spread cross our faces as we saw interesting buildings, tried desperately hard to get that Katie Melua song out of our heads (there are nine million bicycles in Beijing...) and smelt all those strange and alien smells that seem so powerful when you first arrive in a foreign country. All the while we were trying to track down taxi drivers, but by this point must have looked so horrendous, as even those waiting for passengers felt it more prudent to encourage us we were close by ponting down the road further.

By the time we took our bags off our backs at the Beijing International Saga Youth Hostel we had nothing to do but strip our sodden clothes, cover in some decent way and try to find a gallon of liquid, if not a drip, to rehydrate us. Bumper sized bottles of Sprite guzzled we fell asleep on our separate beds with the ambition of a power nap and an afternoon exploring.

4 hours later we woke and I panicked that we would not sleep tonight. Nother two hours of involuntary sleep followed before I insisted that it was time to leave the room or we'd be up at 4.30pm. As it was gone 9pm we took a stroll to find some food, and after being given a map headed out for a night market and Tiannemen Square. With the bags off our backs and neon lights illuminating the way the city seemed very beautiful, and although we never found the night market we were hown an exhibition for a student who was excited about his coming trip to Paris. He discussed in great detail the traditional style of Art and calligraphy an showed us his modern take on things. After writing our names for us as a gift and telling us stories about each piece we felt we would like a piece to take home. He was a very clever sales man!!

Finally we made our way back to our beds. We will be up earky in the morning to see Tiannamen Sqaure and the Forbidden City in the daylight after a beautiful midnight stroll around the closed grounds. We are so lucky to have 10 months of this ahead of us!!

19/08/09

Well we certainly managed to catch up on our sleep finally. we set our alarms for 7am and actually moved out of bed at 9am but we were still looking pretty rough with our bloodshot eyes and foggy brains. What was needed was a good coffee so we set off not sure what we might find. Then after quite a walk we spotted a Starbucks, not exactly what we had in mind but we really needed it! Just before we went in a lady outside the shop nextdoor invited us to try her free tea which was rather damn good so we checked out the her shop. Before we knew it she was preparing a full Chinese tea ceremony for us! We said we had no money which was an obvious lie but after seeing the last few people that had come up to us in the street we knew how good people are at selling things to you out here. yet again though we were met with such goodness and generousity we felt so welcome. After several free teas, sweets and chocolates later we bought a small box full.

Next up was our main objective of the day - The Forbidden City! This certainly didn't disapoint, it was huuuuge and took us hours upon hours to walk around. It had been used in many of the Zing Dynasty action films we'd watched back home and being stood right in the middle courtyard surrounded by massive temples it was something quite special. We can't wait to watch the films back now!

Next up was the beautiful Beihai Park with it's wide river full of Water Lillies and amazing bridges. We bought some lollies and sat down for a good rest and to enjoy the surroundings. We set off to head to the top of the park and Laura got praised by a Chinese boy who wanted his picture taken with her. This was the first of many to come later in the day when we got more taken with a mother and her daughter. We've been mistaken for famous celebritys but I can't imagine who apart from Boris Becker and Britney Spears maybe? I don't think they've ever dated though!

The day was moving quick so we squeezed in one last thing and headed to Tiannemen Square. Nothing much to see really apart from some very impressive stone carvings. Many people were killed in in a protest but I don't know much more than that. We headed back to the hostel, obviously getting lost again and taking twice as much time as we needed to but that's all the fun really. Now we're sat eating potato wedges and getting tingles about seeing The Great Wall tomorrow waaahooo!