Ni Haio China

So now that I am starting my tours free internet will be harder to come by. So I will write my posts in word and upload them when I can so sometimes there will be posts of pictures and sometimes just words, or a mixture of both. It depends how lazy I am feeling! Ha-ha.

So I wanted to start by saying I’m here, in Beijing. It is beautiful, the city is sprawling, never have I seen so many green spaces within a city. There are so many parks, and the mixture of old and new architecture is amazing. When I added china to my tour list it was with enthusiasm but not as much enthusiasm as the rest of the trip, however now I am here, I cannot wait to explore more, I love it, I had forgotten that at the age of 11 all I wanted more than anything was a purple room with yellow Chinese words. I don’t even think I knew what the Chinese words meant… I just wanted them, I loved anything to do with china. Those weird swinging arm cats, fans, dragons I loved everything that was associated with china, I remember getting excited if I had something that was made in china!!! And now I’m here I have remembered how much I wanted to come here. 

Beijing is a beautiful place, I think I drove pass the Forbidden City when I was coming to my hotel. That reminds me. My driver that I had from the airport took me on the most petrifying ride I have imagined (we think dad is bad mum!!) for some reason A LOT of people just take to driving on the hard shoulder if there is traffic. Which is bad enough in itself but when there is a motorway exit coming up with people pulling off and you are speeding up the hard shoulder with no inclination of pulling onto the ACTUAL ROAD, let’s just say it’s scary, and the man didn’t speak a word of English which makes it worse of course. Actually I lied, he spoke 5 words of English. Chong wen men hotel (the name of my hotel) and Thank which he used in copious amounts when I gave him his tip. And here’s why.

 I took money out and it is roughly 10¥ (Yuen) to the £1. So I thought I had taken out £20 when I took out 2000¥ (not thinking, bear in mind I had landed after 32 hours of flights) and then I tipped the man 300¥ thinking it was £3. No I had tipped him £30 when he had scared the life out of me with his driving. So yes he was very Thank!!! L However I guess I really brightened his day, and if he had  a family, maybe he treated them hahahaha.

However much I love china, the language barrier is very hard. I went out last night for some water. There is water in the hotel that is charged at 7¥ for a litre which is really good, however I have no change and after my generous tip I didn’t want to leave a 100¥ again. So I headed to mc Donald’s. Thinking great they will have water..

I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT.

It was so alien. There was fried pork in noodles! The dinners where so random, almost all of them came in the container we use for big breakfasts. There was about 5 burgers and not a double cheese burger in site L. However I just wanted 3 bottles of water and a coke. So the woman handed me the list and I pointed out the bottles of water coupled with holding up 3 fingers.. YESS EASY I thought. Then came the coke. I pointed out the glass of coke that was next to fries (there was no coke my itself) the woman nodded and ahhd. Yes I thought I had done it. Then I was given a bag with fries in it. NO I thought I hadn’t done it. So after much finger pointing at receipt passing I finally got my coke. I went to turn around and the woman kept trying to pass my the fries. Now after the numerous plane journeys in which we are overfed throughout the day, I did not need any fries, however she would not let me leave without them. So in the end I gave them to a homeless woman.

And thus ends my extremely long post. Hope you managed to read to the end.  And in summary, I love china, and am trying to get around the language barrier.

Love you all, Chow x

Right now time to find food. Wish me luck!!