Seven was far too early to be woken, with only precious hours sleep, but I soldiered on for our epic Great Wall hike. We started off from the lodge in the village, walking out along a concrete road in the humid morning air. Through the path we hit abandoned buildings and household dogs set on the loose. After about 10 minutes we hit a small path that lead up into the green hillside which officially started our hike. It was torture. We could see the dip of the ...

We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed after our first night's sleep in Beijing. Seven of us girls were sharing a room with a random Chinese girl in the hostel next to the bar, so we had good access to wifi, although we were disappointed with the Great Fire Wall of China, which meant that most sites at home were blocked. Today, we were scheduled for a Chinese cooking class followed by a scavenger hunt around the hu tong district. We headed out with Alicia to c...

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 exc...

My journey of a thousand steps started with my goodbyes to my family and friends over the course of the last month. On my last night I was in tears after a lovely family dinner at my grandmothers and then it was time to hit the road. I was driving to Beth's house in Essex to stay the night before we caught our nine o'clock flight from Heathrow and to avoid some emotional scenes at the airport on behalf of my mother. However, when we got there I was the emotiona...

My journey of a thousand steps started with my goodbyes to my family and friends over the course of the last month. On my last night I was in tears after a lovely family dinner at my grandmothers and then it was time to hit the road. I was driving to Beth's house in Essex to stay the night before we caught our nine o'clock flight from Heathrow and to avoid some emotional scenes at the airport on behalf of my mother. However, when we got there I was the emotional ...