Friday 11th October

The start of the trip was a bit of a disaster – my flight from Perth was cancelled while I was waiting in the departure lounge, so I had to head back home to sleep for a few hours whilst I waited to hear back about when the flight was rescheduled. I headed back to the airport the following afternoon and made the first leg to Hong Kong. Fortunately I’d planned to arrive a few days before the tour started.

Upon arriving I soon had to rely on my years of travel experience, realising the men at the taxi rank were trying to shuffle me towards a taxi driver who was attempting to charge me more than double the price of a trip into the city centre. After setting my bags down at the hotel, the first thing to do was find a good coffee – which ended up being at Voyage Coffee. I spent the afternoon walking around Jingshan Park before heading on a food tour in the evening.

Saturday 12th October

Today was fantastic. While I was planning this trip back home I came across a post on Reddit from a woman named Louise who was building an app called Best Things China, creating self guided tours of China. She was looking for volunteers to test it out and I got chatting to her about it. Today I met up with her and her husband Alan for the Between Heaven and Earth tour. I basically had a full day guided tour for free, from locals who know all the great places for food, coffee and sightseeing. Louise previously was part of a startup who built a mobile game which received investment from Tencent, and Allan is a sci fi novelist. They’re starting this new product of offering self guided tours, so I had to give them some feedback and do a video interview for them as well. They were super nice, and it made for a really enjoyable day. We explored the Temple of Heaven and nearby gardens – it was surprising to go from heavily crowded to all of a sudden walking through a peaceful forrest, spotting squirrels along the way. Louise even gave me a small bookmark as a gift. We finished up with an interview at the coffee shop attached to Vintage&Republic, where I bought a nice collared shirt.

In the evening I’ll meet up with the G Adventures group. I’m a little bit nervous about having to give up some of my freedom, I suppose the trade off is I’ll get to do a whole bunch of great experiences in China over the next 2 weeks, then I have some more of my own time to explore Shanghai, KL with Dan and then a bit more time afterwards for god knows what.

In the evening, we had the meeting in the lobby – the group seem nice and friendly, with a few funny characters thrown in there. Seems like no dickheads which is the main thing. We went for peking duck dinner and then grabbed a few snacks on the way home for lunch tomorrow.

Sunday 13th October

Today was a big day of walking. I dashed out early in search of good coffee, and found it in the form of a pour over at Grid Coffee. On the way back to the hotel I stopped by for some meat buns at a place that Howard (our G Adventures tour guide) suggested – finding it with the help of a lady and her young boy.

At 9AM we set off with the group, catching the metro over to Forbidden City where we spent hours exploring the various temples and rooms, only scratching the surface of it in reality. On the metro station on the way back, a girl dressed in traditional clothes asked me for a photo with her. I think because she caught me staring at her.

By the time we made it back to the hotel it was after 4PM and my feet and back were screaming out for a rest. I snuck in about 30 minutes in the room with a cup of tea and some snacks I’d bought at the bakery.

At night we visited Tiananmen Square, I was disappointed we didn’t get to go in and see Mao’s body in the mausoleum. Then afterwards we went to the night markets and snacked on a few different meals.

Now I’m in bed, feet throbbing and looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

Monday 14th October

Today we were off at 7.30, on a private bus and off to Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.

I had to wait until we arrived to have a cheeky double espresso, then Jack and I opted to walk to the very far end of this section of the wall. It was a bit tougher than I expected, mainly due to the steep steps.

It was a fantastic experience and the view was iconic. Jack and I celebrated the effort climbing to the high watch tour with a beer from a local vendor.

I took the cable car down, had half a subway and we made our way back to the hotel. In the evening a few of us went for a few drinks at a cool bar in the hutongs (old alleyways of Beijing).