Ní hăo!

With only a few days left in Beijing as a group, we made the most of our time together. Our mornings were taken up with more Mandarin lessons, but in the afternoons we had different activities that Mike and Iris would take us to.

On Wednesday afternoon we headed to the British Council building and were given talks by 3 very interesting people (all members of the British Council) who are currently working in China. One of the things we were told about was Generation UK, which is a project to get over 18s out to China on 6 or 12 month study scholarships, or a 2 month internship. This sounded really good and I noted down some of the details (you never know what I might want to do in the future, and it seems as good a way as any to get back into China!). We were also told a little bit about living in China, and how to make the most of our time, and that if we make an effort with the language, and want to learn it, we can.

On Thursday, our lesson with Harry was a bit different. He put on a Chinese film about the refugees in Henan during World War II. All the characters were based on real people and their actual experiences. The film started off okay, but as it progressed it just got more and more sad. I was one of only a few who actually sat through the entire film, more than half of the class nodded of for part or for the whole of the film.

In the afternoon we went to visit the Temple of Heaven, which was just stinning. We all got some loveley photos, and some girls were lucky enough to get photos with monks (which apparently is very rare). After this we headed to the Hongqiao Pearl Market, which is a big indoor market with people selling knock offs of everything you can imagine from trainers to beats headphones and speakers, to the 'latest' (as in not even out yet) iPhone 6 and 7. And then a group of 11 of us took Iris to Pizza Hut for dinner. We paid for her dinner, which she argued against us about for ages, we we are stubborn, and had paid for it before she had seen the bill :P

Friday was a sad day as we said goodbye to Iris and Harry and then headed back to our first hostel to spend our last night together as a group in Beijing.

4 of us (Laurie, Callum, Gina and I) hopped on the subway and went to visit the Lama Temple. Well, we attempted to anyway. We arrived at ten to 5 and discovered that it closed at 5pm so we were not allowed in. Disappointed for only a few moments, we spotted a KFC - which cheered us up immensely! The Lama Temple is definitely on our to do list for when we return to Beijing.

Our last evening together was spent at the local expat bar, 4corners, and we all had a really good night :)

It was very difficult to say goodbye to everyone on the Saturday as we had all become very close and very good friends in the short amount of time we have had together. The 16 who were headed up north left for the train station first in multiple taxis (for some reason they would only take 2 people at a time).

The Jiangxi 5 were left in the hotel and we were minding our own business when suddenly the reception called us through and said that Mike had been on the phone saying we had to get taxis right at that moment (about 4pm) instead of 6pm as originally planned. We panicked a little, thinking something was wrong with our train details, and grabbed our belongings, rushing outside with the address (in Mandarin) that the reception had given us. Hailing a taxi, Rachael and Tanisha hopped in and headed to the station. Hailing a second taxi was harder, it was the 3rd empty taxi that saw that stopped and agreed to take us to the station. But only 2 of us. So Lucie and Tazzy got in the cab and I was left on my own. I tried to hail a taxi for another 15 minutes, but had no luck, so, pulling my bags behind me, I headed for the busier road. On this road, it was the 5th empty taxi that I hailed that finally stopped and soon I was on my way to join the others.

Upon arrival at the station, Mike informed us that 12 of the volunteers had missed their train, and so had gone back to the hostel. Beijing train station is like an airport, and the 'boarding gate' shut 10 minutes before departure. The vols only got into the waiting room 5 minutes before the departure, and so were unable to board.

The 5 of us had a final meal with Mike in a small restaurant outside of the station before he took us to get our tickets and waved us through the gate.

We were finally on our way to Jiangxi!

Until next time,

Zàijiàn x