Kelly finished work 2 weeks earlier than me to make sure that all was packed and we were 100% prepared for our world travels. I of course accused and teased her of being a bum and spending all day in bed and watching tv, but in truth it worked out really well. She got everything packed and organised days before our departure date. We managed to sell everything...even a 3 year old rotten mattress, now I knew that I was a reasonable salesman...but even I was impressed with that. We spent the final 2 days in a totally empty apartment with a mattress on the floor, it looked like a heroin den. With only our travelling clothes and a couple of old dressing gowns, and an electric heater that even an illegal Chinese sweat camp would deem unsafe, but we kept warm in the Sydney winter. We didn't have a fridge, and so to keep a couple of chicken breasts cold, we put them in a saucepan of water on the balcony....I hope it worked....the one place you don't want food poisoning is on a plane!!! Now waiting in the airport....2 hours until our first flight

We arrive in Bangkok, and are told that our Bangkok to shanghai flight was delayed by 3 hours….nightmare. We were given a meal voucher and got ourselves a midnight snack, and found a place to sleep. We caught our flight to shanghai, only to find the next available flight to Beijing was 9 hours later….9 hours. Mr Sun (our driver for Beijing) was waiting at Beijing airport for us as we were told this news. We called Mr Sun, and arranged for him to pick us up 9 hours later. We complained to the international duty desk and were given a hotel room and another meal voucher and began the 7 hour wait for our final connecting flight to Beijing.
It got worse, our flight to Beijing was then delayed from 755pm to 930pm. Annoyed but we patiently waited. We were then told along with 200 irate Chinese people that it was delayed indefinitely but they would not give anyone a reason…no one seemed to know. By 12pm the irate Chinese passengers were really starting to kick off. Shouting was followed by screaming and the customer service desk was surrounded by hundreds, looking to start a riot. I being the mature individual that I am, ran across hoping to see some gladiatorial combat…surely fair compensation for waiting over 12 hours. The police were called over, and still there was no answer. With multiple foreign nationals in the departure lounge waiting for news, and hundreds of different languages talking, "Chinese whispers" (excuse the pun) began, and rumours started to run wild. We found out that the plane, we were meant to fly on "didn't work very well, and was broken"…great, so even if we are given the okay to fly, it could crash down in a ball of flames any minute. The clock struck 2am and we were told we were being driven to another airport (Hoinow…or something) where we would be flown to Beijing. We took off at 3am….13hours after arriving in shanghai….Sydney to Beijing flight in total 36 hours. Awful.
Day 1
We arrived in Beijing at 530am, and got a taxi to the hotel, we managed to squeeze in 3 hours sleep, and headed straight to the forbidden city and Tiananmen square. We met Mr Sun our driver who gave us a lift to Tiananmen Square and gave us some advice on the city. He couldn't drive us today but would take us to the wall tomorrow. The Forbidden City was humungous and we spent 3 hours walking around before exiting into Tiananmen Square. The square was eery, people flying kites and having fun, crazy to think it was the scene of a pro democracy massacre, not too long ago. We walked home from the square and popped into a restaurant for some famous peking/Beijing duck and home to rest. Just as we got home the heavens opened…good job because we were too tired to leave the hotel anyway.
Day 2
Day 2 started badly, with a dose of "the ducks revenge", and a large serving of dodgy stomach pills we were ready to go. Mr Sun, our driver, collected us from our hotel at 630am, and we began the journey to the great wall. We arrived at the wall at 815am and we were given 2 options walk up the stairs to the wall or take the cable car. He suggested that because we were young we should walk….and you had to pay an additional fee for the cable car. We walked to the wall, which was very tiring. The walk up must have taken 20minutes, and was upstairs all the way. By the time we got to the top, we were feeling a little tired, and then the spectacle and scale of the wall hit us….it was massive. We walked along the wall for about an hour, before deciding to turn back, and head back to the car park. The wall is unbelievably big, and some parts are flat, and some parts are huge 3ft steps, that you practically have to climb. On the way back, we were walking down a particularly steep and slippery collection of steps, when I lost my footing, and had to steady myself with my hands. I heard a voice from behind me "must be careful…must be careful…wery wery dangerous" I turned to see who was giving me this advice, and it was a 80 year old Chinese woman climbing down the steps, with a walking stick…she had no problem getting up and down, and I was struggling all over the place. Although I did feel better, 10mins later when a large African American woman was complaining that she wanted to turn back as she was bored and tired. I enquired how long she had been walking, and "500m…how much further is it" was her reply. I had to bite my tongue and not mention that it ran the length of China.
Mr Sun then drove us to the Ming tombs, ancient burial grounds of previous emperors. Interesting, but nowhere near as spectacular as the wall. He dropped us off near to the city and we had to jump on the subway, this was because he hadn't renewed his license and was breaking the law driving into the city. The subway was pretty modern and it was a direct route to our hotel . A quick sleep, bit of dinner and Mr Sun had managed to sort us out some cheap Shaolin Kung Fu tickets. The show was amazing, smashing metal bars on their heads, flying around and phenomenal choreographed fight scenes.
Day 3:
We walked to the temple of heaven, a sacred temple south of our hotel and spent the day there. We then got a taxi to Houhai, an old part of Beijing, untouched by modernity and had lunch there. The taxi had been quite expensive and we were wary of our spending, and so we managed to get a bus home….how do you get 1000 Chinese people on a bus…the number 111 did. Very very stuffy. Back home, quick sleep and then out to watch another show, this time acrobatics. Pretty amazing show, death defying stunts, and 15 Chinese girls on one bicycle.

Day 4:
We were running out of money and only had 120yuan left, about $15, we don't know where all our money has gone, all the entry fees I suppose. We got the subway to north Beijing and then walked 1.5km from there to a huge park with temples etc. We left the park with 82yuan and decided that we couldn't afford lunch and so got a bus home for 12cents(AUD) and then walked to mcdonalds to buy one portion of chips to share and I had a banana. We didn't want to take more money out as we had spent a fair amount already. We saved 65 yuan, as we were planning to visit the night market and so walked back to the hotel. While looking through the safe I checked my travel wallet and uncovered 2000 yuan….s***…that's $250…. No wonder we thought we were spending the money quickly….we weren't!!! Now do I tell Kelly, that the reason we have got 2 buses and 2 trains with the entire population of Beijing , shared a portion of chips for lunch, have been having fruit for breakfast and were planning to get the train to the airport and not a $10 taxi….is because I forgot to check the travel wallet, or do I hide the money and forget I ever found it. She would know I was lying, she's like a member of the Gestapo. she would have me tied to a chair with electric crocodile clips attached to my genitalia.... Of course I told her and we went out to the night food market. We had beef and lamb kebabs, a mixed noodle dish, a potato rosti with a fried egg on it that had been deep fried….awesome and finally I ate a barbequed dragonfly….It tasted pretty rough but I was glad I tried it. Bus home, next stop Bangkok.