Beijing, where do I even start? What an amazing, busy, dirty, spectacular city. Almost every adjective you can think of describes this city. I think this is mostly because of the sheer size of it; it's literally almost the size of Wales (Yes, one city!)

So going back to the start of the week, when we arrived, I was feeling very different to how I feel now. Having just stepped off a plane that brought our collective traveling hours up to about 18, I was feeling absolutely crap and had no energy to be excited any more. The airport was crazy, it was boiling, and oh my god the smog was just ridiculous. Questions begin to pop in to your head, what am I doing? Was this a good idea? Am I really here for a whole year?

We then went straight from the airport to a banquet, which I'm sure was more amazing than I remember it. As I said, I was a walking zombie and I was just ignoring my surroundings and dreaming of bed.

Having collapsed on the bed as soon as I saw it, the next day I was feeling slightly better, I was still tired (7 hour time difference guys!) but ten times better than the night before. We met up with our in-country rep, Mike (Check out the Selfie Challenge!) who announced we were going to rent some bikes, and then cycle to a meeting with a returned volunteer. A returned volunteer who now runs Rolls Royce Asia…I know!

After some wise words from the returned volunteer we were told to meet Mike at Tian'anmen Square. This meant navigating through Beijing on bikes, and it was hilarious! If there is one thing I can recommend more than anything to do in Beijing, it is to rent some bikes and explore. You feel like you've stepped out of the real world and stepped in to a video game. A video game where all you have to do is survive!

The people here just drive their cars, mopeds and bikes wherever they want and however they want. I think the thing that sums up Beijing roads the most is the fact that they use the traffic lights more like 'guidelines'. You can be half way across a main road on the cycle lane (Which is more of an anyone lane) and all of a sudden some cars or buses decide that they don't like the red light any more and just go. (The police watch them do it, but don't care!) Finding yourself playing chicken with a bus or a car became a normal thing by the end of the day, and we just did it without thinking. Brian, my partner (You should know who Brian is by now!) was cycling behind a car that decided to do an emergency stop in the middle of the road. With the brakes on the bikes also being crap, Brian had a bit of a bang. Personally I was crying with laughter along with everyone else, but he's still alive which is good!

The following few days were also amazing. We climbed up the Great Wall, which was so much tougher than I expected! I got to the top and the sweat was just pouring off me, #WalkingWaterfall. Trekking up was hot, but so worth the amazing reward we got when we reached the top! (Take a look in my pictures!) It's so difficult to get your head round the scale of the wall and the work that went in to building it. I did find it a bit creepy that they put the bodies of the workers that died in the wall its self, but I was too hot to care.

After an ace few days we moved from the hostel, to a hotel, where we would remain for the week to do a language course. So the week just gone has consisted of being in the school at 8:30am for four hours of lessons, then an afternoon of different activities. These activities mostly consisted of visiting temples and markets. We visited the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven and all the family favourites. Even though the temples were so interesting, I feel like my favourite moments this week have been while haggling in the markets. It's amazing how much they try to rip off anyone foreign. One example is a pair of Beats headphones that I bought. (Most probably fake but they're still good). The woman decided she wanted to sell them to me for 170RMB which is about £17. After about 5 minutes of haggling and walking away and being shouted back I managed to get her down to 50RMB, £5. I am rather proud of myself if I'm honest!

I could literally sit here all day and talk about everything from smog to food but I seriously need to go as I am catching a 50 hour train, YES 50 HOURS, to Xinjiang in about 10 minutes!

So for now, have a good week!