Nǐ Hǎo Beijing

YES!!!! I had slept for several hours. We had just under two hours until landing (one hour behind schedule) and breakfast was about to be served.

Plain omelette with a cheese sauce and tomato salsa

Fruit salad

Mango/Almond cake

During our descent an air stewardess came around a fumigated the plane!

We met up at the top of an escalator and proceeded to security together. It took us about 40 minutes to pass through the 'foreigners' section which gave us chance to swap stories and get to know the 'newbies'. 

Justina was prepared for the smog and began to pass out several surgical masks whilst Lorraine and Ali devised a sing along playlist for our trek. (Peru gang, I am pleased to tell you that 'Barry Manilow, Copacabana' was due to make a comeback). By the time we got through to baggage, ours were the only ones travelling around on the belt. 

We strapped ourselves up and went searching for our Chinese tour guide. 

As we walked through the doors of arrivals I spotted a tall, thin man with an A4 'Welcome Different Travel' sign. This was our tour guide, Stony.

Stony took us to the bus where we met Mr 'How' (which means good in Chinese) "Good driver" and we started our 30 minute commute in to Beijing.

On October 1st, China celebrate 'National Day of the People's Republic of China', a celebration which lasts a week. Stony warned us that the roads would be very busy and our journey in to the centre could take a lot longer.

A man pushing rice

Stony

He filled this time by sharing some Beijing facts. For example: the government ban cars with odd and even licence plates on alternative days.

Those of you who know Phil will know that he spent the rest of the trip trying to figure out what numbers were banned whenever we were travelling by bus. 

Thankfully it only took us 40 minutes to reach our drop off. Because some of the streets are so narrow, we were dropped off at a church 2 minutes away from our hotel.

The square was busy and full of 'married couples' having their photos taken. Apparently it is traditional to have a dress rehearsal wedding shoot.

The plan was get changed and meet in the lobby at 1:30 so we could head for some lunch and get our bearings. The rooms were ok but very basic. The beds were ROCK HARD.

 Becca, Phil, Chris, Lorraine, Ali, Jan, Jayne, Oona and myself headed towards the shopping mall that Stony had suggested. The streets of Beijing were really busy but the Mall was on a different level. All the shops had special 'Bank Holiday' deals on. We headed straight for the sixth floor and after an in depth search we found a restaurant that had pictures next to the Chinese name.

We placed our orders (Spicy noodles & 3 delicacy dumplings) and looked forward to a nice cold beer. We left the ordering to Lorraine as she is fluent in chinese. "Can we have 8 cold beers? Cold? *hugs herself* BRRRR"
Unfortunately the beers were warm. Turns out the Chinese think it is too cold for cold drinks so they turn their fridges off in the autumn/winter season.

After lunch and a quick look around the shops the group headed back to the hotel. Chris, Becca, Phil decided beer and exploring was a better idea than sleeping so off we went.

There were no bars in 'our' area of Beijing but it was acceptable to drink on the streets.

During our walk we found ourselves in the middle of the food market. Spiders, snake, larvae, grasshoppers, scorpions, sheep's penis, balls! Everything you could imagine!

Curiosity got the better of us so Becca and I tried a baby scorpion each. (Salty and chewy). More beer was bought and after enough walking we headed back to the hotel to meet the gang for dinner and our second tour guide, Neal.

Stony took us to a traditional restaurant on the same street as our hotel.

Jasmine Tea

Beer (obviously)

Salt & Pepper Meatballs

Broccoli with garlic

Eggplant

Celery, Bean and Lotus Root

Sweet & Sour Pork

Pork with Garlic Shoot

Peppered Beef

Rice

Sweet Potato Balls

After dinner we had a quick brief with Stony and then we headed to the Church square to witness the dancing that we had heard so much about.

(I promise I will post videos as soon as Becca uploads).

It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The square was FULL. It was a cross between line dancing and zumba.

 In one corner you had the crazy homeless people, in another, ballroom dancing, in another, breakdancing and the final corner was full of 'westerners' watching in confusion and awe. 

When a song finished, the three at the front would start a new dance off and the others would follow, without smiling!

As you can imagine I jumped straight in. I fluffed the first dance but by the second and third I was an expert, much to my neighbours amusement. Ali and I kept going until the very end

*right shoulder roll x2 , left shoulder roll x2, right arm wave backwards x1, left arm wave backwards x1, both arms right, both arms left, elbow thrust x2*

By the end we had made several 'friends' so much so that one man followed us and wouldn't stop taking my picture. I felt like a minor celebrity.

On our way to the market a woman tried to drag us in to a side street for a beer, "I'm just being friendly, come, come with me.....ok then GO AWAY".

On our walk to the market we realised that people were dancing all over, some copying from a video on a lap top.

Fingers crossed we can get something like this sorted for The Monument, Newcastle.

Jessica bought three grasshoppers on a skewer, which we all took a bite of! VILE! It tasted like powder. We also bought snake, which was really nice, it tasted like squid.

Sheep's Penis

Grasshopper (thing)

Becca, Chris, Phil & I bought one last (£1) beer and sat outside the hotel watching Nana do her exercises outside her apartment building.

VERY entertaining.

John and Jessica came out to join us for a night cap. As John went up to the shop, Jessica made her way over to us but tripped on some low chain. Thankfully Chris was there to save her by grabbing her boob!

Finally after a bonding session we headed to the room just after 11:30.

It had been a LONG couple of days.