Hello! It's official, I'm now in China! Arrived at 0830 local time after a 9 hour journey from Frankfurt in the luxury that is Business class (courtesy of Lufthansa as they failed to let Jon and me sit together) and it was 24.5 degrees centigrade outside! The airport was airconditioned fortunately (not that we could tell until we walked out the front door!)

After we arrived at the hotel we're staying at whilst in Beijing we've have our first real chinese meal and I can now say with great confidence that I do not like pigs ears (too crunchy) but the seafood was very nice as was the beef, but I didn't feel ready to try the Pig's trotters (maybe next time). Some of it is very different from what we are used to thinking of as Chinese food in the west but at least some of it was rather familiar.

There's not really a great lot going on today but we're all meeting at 1715 to have the camp opening ceremony and orientation- should be interesting. Tomorrow we will be starting teaching at 0830 (talk about been thrown in at the deep end) teaching year 11 students all day. There is a trip to the Forbidden city and great wall planned for later in the programme so I'll tell you all about it (and upload some of my photos!)

Later x

(As a side note, if you want to drive when you come to China- Don't. Or failing that use these handy tips: use your horn plentifully- especially if people don't move out of your way fast enough for your liking, put your foot down and go for it- it's what every other driver seems to be going for, it is optional to obey red lights and to allow pedestrians to cross.)