I've Landed In Bustling Beijing

My London to Beijing flight was delayed by about an hour for some unknown reason. I was left thinking "What the hell am I doing" whilst waiting to board the plane, every passenger waiting for my flight was Chinese. Yes, I know the flight is going to "China" but at this point my head was worrying about the culture shock and I was hoping to see at least one or two other backpackers boarding the flight. My first long haul flight went surprisingly quickly. I managed to sleep slightly but not much due to a guy snoring in the row behind me. The first thing I noticed waiting to board the plane was the number of westerners on the flight, I could probably count them on one hand....ok maybe two hands what was I letting myself in for?

Getting through customs at Beijing was pretty straight forward and the airport was surprisingly quiet. As I got out side there was a queue for taxi's and I was the only foreigner in the queue. I couldn't help thinking I was going to foot a big bill for being foreign. Before getting into the taxi I made sure the driver agree on the 85 RMB (About 6 pound) price before getting in, I soon noticed he couldn't speak any English and was struggling to read the map to the hostel. I suggested to him that he drop me near Tianiman Square and I would walk the rest of the way. As I shuffled out of the back of the taxi a man was starring back at me sat on the pavement with his feet in the gutter. He put his hands out as if he was asking for money, I had bigger things to worry about such as where I was supposed to be heading. Everywhere I looked there were a set of eyes looking back. It was as if I was an alien from outer space who had just crash landed on earth or in this case just got out of a taxi with a rucksack.

Walking down the street was a bit of a culture shock as I seemed to be the only foreigner in the whole place and it was strange to see people staring at me and acting with surprise. After walking for twenty minutes, with sweat dripping off my head like rain drops I looked around for any street signs, unfortunatley they were all in Chinese symbols. I decided to take a guess as to which road the hostel was on, I wandered down the road feeling the strain of my rucksack. Bikes, cars and cyclos buzzed past me beeping horns and there was a smell of frying food as I walked along amazed by all the strange little shops, food stalls, local restaurants and dodgy dvd shops. A young Chinese guy approach me, I still had my guard up but as finding the hostel hadn't gone quite according to plan I asked him if he knew where the hostel was. As one of the very few people who could speak any kind of English in the area, he told me the hostel (Leo 2 Hostel) was just further up the street. He walked along with me to show me the way, I told him I'd be back in his dvd shop the following day to buy a dvd for his help.

I had only checked into the hostel for what seemed like two minutes when the next thing I know I'm back on the bustling, busy street watching the world go by and drinking a large beer with a Polish dorm mate, Marish. He was quite an amusing guy although his English wasn't perfect he had a great sense of humour.

After the large bottle of beer I opted for a power nap in my top wooden bunk in the 12 bed dorm room which was bright and humid. I awoke an hour or two later and headed to the hostel restaurant and order spicy chicken and peanuts with a bowl of rice plus a large beer, it cost 22 RMB which is about 1 pound 50. The food was great although at the time I didn't quite realise just how cheap it was. I even surprised myself with my chop stick skills, managing to keep the food in my mouth rather than on the table.

As I begin a tour of China on the 23rd of June I thought it was a wise idea to avoid the major sites as these will be covered in the tour. So the plan was to take it easy for a couple of days and visit some of the things that I don't think will be covered in the tour.

In the evening after yet more sleep to combat jetlag, I wandered to the hostel bar. At the bar we got chatting to a 3 Swedish girls after they overheard me explaining to others that the Swedish football team were "quite ordinary". They were planning to go to a Swedish bar to watch the Sweden vs England game and invited me along being an England fan. At the time this seemed like a good idea until I realised the game kicked off at 3 in the morning. I resisted the temptation to go and opted for some sleep, it was probably a good decision after all the excitment of my first day and the effects of my 10 hour flight.