At 03.45 the alarm sounded; beep beep, we were off to Xian. With a day full of activities, experiences and knee pain planned, we were soon in our taxi to Beijing airport. A quick check in and wait in gate, and whoosh; we were up in the air over the Shaanxi mountain range. It was a lovely start to the day... Upon arrival we met our guide for day. Her name was Helen and she was most friendly. We jumped in with her and our driver, Mr Li. Off to the terracotta warri...

Another long day today, starting nice and early of course! No time to be tired though - too much to see!! (And Alex was quite the attraction....!!) Today we have been on a city tour of Beijing, seeing all of the most famous landmarks. It was another early start, out for 7.40am, and first to visit was Tiananmen Square. We didn't stay here for too long so didn't have too long to soak in all of the surroundings, think we might have another visit there on Thursday...

Our first full day in Beijing started with a 5.30am alarm for me! Just what I needed after a lack of sleep from the previous day! But it was all for good reason of course. At 7am we were picked up by our tour guide (Lily) in the hotel reception and we picked our seats on the mini bus. Before we arrived in China we pre-booked tours for everyday in Beijing to make sure we could see as much as possible in the short time we are here! We then proceeded to pick up ...

And so our adventure begins!! After a 7 hour flight to Dubai, a 2 hour wait at the airport for our connecting flight and another 7 hours in the air, we finally land in Beijing at about 4pm. Before we even land we can see how smoggy it is, it's crazy, this massive haze over the city that gives the city quite a grey look, you can understand why they wear the face masks to protect themselves. Our transfer met us off the plane and drove us through the city to our...