We arrived in Beijing, hot, smelly tired messes. We were greeted by Alicia and Mike, our two western reps who live in Beijing and are charged with taking care of us. Our arrival was hilarious: we were travelling down the escalators towards the front of the arrivals terminal when there was a bag pile up, people were jumping for cover, screams echoed around the marble room and panic ensued. It was horrific. Many were, of course, scarred for life. However, the excitement and ludicrousness of the idea that we had finally landed in Beijing, we were finally here, in China, meant that all was forgotten. We piled into a bus and were driven to the hostel.

Our accommodation was in a Hu tong district of Beijing. The centre of Beijing, is, on the whole marred with the ugly façade of hideously dated tower blocks. We, on the other hand, were staying in a more traditional district, filled with traditional grey brick courtyard houses and small aging alley ways. Shops are everywhere, sometimes spilling on to the street without any front or air-conditioning and chickens and ducks roam free on the pavements. Every once and a while you are hit with an unpleasant smell but on the whole our experience was lovely. The streets come alive after dark between 8 and 11 people go out for dinner and drink in bars that edge into the street and lights and noises and smells everywhere.

When we arrived we were shown to our rooms and told to be ready ASAP for a visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We took to Beijing underground (surprisingly new, clean and not very crowded) to the square for a mosey round and some lunch because, not having had breakfast, we were absolutely starving. After asking a guard in broken English to direct us to the nearest restaurant, we stumbled upon a little diner and I ordered chips and a coke, how Chinese for my first meal but I was really beyond caring. It was a shame that once we finished we found out that the Forbidden City had already closed for the day and so we headed into the Imperial Gardens of the City to marvel at the magnificent traditional architecture from the Ming and Qing Dynasties coupled with weeping willows and lotus flowers dotting the marble bridges and lakes.

It was then decided by an unnamed Dutchman that it would be a good idea if we tried to walk back using our wits and the particularly ambiguous map from my China guide book. Somehow in the end most of us agreed and set of, however, we quickly got lost, in the Gardens and even when we managed to get out we still had no idea where we were or how to get back. In the end a helpful pedestrian told us that it was much too far a distance to walk and we would be better getting a taxi. This was easier said than done, traffic in China is manic. Traffic lights and zebra crossings are ignored with a passion and death is at most times when crossing a road, a worrying possibility. Furthermore, the majority of the taxis we tried to hail already had passengers so things were difficult. In the end we did get home, abet with some of us on rickshaws.

That evening after freshening up, we were lead down a non-descript back alley and up a flight of steps to a cute but cramped room for dinner. It was a bone fide Chinese meal complete with dirt cheap beer and chopsticks. Fun times, under traditional umbrellas and Chinese paintings. Afterwards some of us headed over to a street side bar, which imported Western beer and so was littered with foreigners, for some chilled chat and banter and then headed home.