People said China would be a culture shock so I was expecting Beijing to be pretty different to cities I know in the UK, but I was still surprised by the sheer size of the Chinese capital and the number of people there are here. I was picked up by a Mandarin-only-speaking driver who transported me to my hotel in central Beijing, giving me the first introduction to Chinese (and Asian for that matter) driving protocol. Essentially, there is none. I spent most of t...

I definitely thought that I would wait longer before writing my first blog post but just sitting on the plane on the flight out to Beijing compelled me to make a mental (and online) note not to fly long haul with Air China ever again. I'd thought, in booking the flight, that this airline was the equivalent of BA - i.e. I expected relatively high standards (even though I paid a pretty budget price). However, this couldn't be further from the truth. Without being s...