From Oslo I had caught a plane to Amsterdam, and from there I went directly on to Beijing. The plane landed around 8.30 a.m., local time. As usual I couldn’t sleep on the plane, so I was pretty tired. My body protested loudly that it was in the middle of the night, not the beginning of a new day. Still, the long journey had been made easier by the person sitting next to me, a nice guy from Manchester who was going to Beijing for 3 months to teach English. He was himself a student of Chinese.

The airport seemed well organised, but with the somewhat ”abandoned” feeling that some Asian airports seem to have (you never see passengers other than the ones coming in on your own plane). The passport/visa control took place in a large room with an emblem in red and gold, and large characters in Chinese and English telling you what was going on. Everything went smoothly. The luggage arrived in no time, and then I walked into the arrival hall where a driver was waiting for me as I – chicken that I am - had ordered transfer to the hotel (which might have been just as well, I later found out that the taxi prices that my fellow travellers had paid varied from 80-280 Yuan (1 Yuan = 0,12 USD)). The car was black and sleek on the outside, somewhat less impressive on the inside. No chance for conversation, as the driver seemed to say yes with a big smile no matter what I said to him. The trip took about 40 minutes, driving towards the city – with its 12,6 million inhabitants - on modern highways.

I checked into the hotel, the people in the reception seemed to speak English reasonably well. The Harmony Hotel seemed OK, it must be relatively new. It takes less than 5 minutes to walk from the hotel to the main railway station, and about 20 minutes to walk to Tiananmen Square. As soon as I got to my hotel room my worst fears seemed to come true, I spent 2-3 hours in the bathroom being sick. I was pretty depressed, imagining the rest of the trip being like this. But eventually I dared to venture down to the reception to buy a map and change some money. Since that seemed to go OK, I dared to go for a walk. And after a while I  felt just fine, I was probably just dehydrated from the plane. I spent quite a few hours just walking the streets, to get the ”feel” of the city. (I must admit that at one point I was looking for the Tiananmen Square, but I didn’t find it. My sense of direction isn’t always what it should be.) The sun was shining and it was really hot, it must have been at least 30 degrees. Eventually I walked back to the hotel to have a rest and cool down. A notice in the reception from our tour leader had informed me that we would have a meeting at  6 p.m., and then we would be going out for dinner. I was looking forward to seeing what kind of people there would be in the group, where they were from etc. Especially the person I was going to share a room with for the next three weeks. 

The tour leader turned out to be a girl from New Zealand named Kath. Due to a problem in implementing a new booking system, the group would consist of 13 people instead of the normal 12. There was only one other person who was travelling alone, 3 of the people in the group were men and the rest were women. Apart from me there were only two Europeans, two young girls - Vicky I and Vicky II  - from Dundee in Scotland. The rest were all Australians. There was a young couple from Brisbane, John and Donna. They travelled with John’s sister Alison, who was to be my room-mate. Then there was another married  couple, Adrianne and Peter from Tasmania, and Adrianne's sister Joan and their mother Lilian. The other person travelling alone was Steve, who is a dairy farmer from Victoria. Then there was Nancy and Yvonne, two friends from Tasmania. The Vickys are the youngest at 19, while Lillian is the eldest at 70. It seemed like a nice group of people. (Although I had nurtured a small hope that I would be travelling with a bunch of tall, tanned, muscular Australian surfer-boys, as such the group was a bit of a disappointment…)

After introductions had been made and we had all given her our insurance details, Kath gave some information about China in general and our itinerary in particular. She also explained her own role, and stressed the fact that she is a tour leader, not a tour guide. After the meeting we went off for dinner at a place Kath had been to before. We took the subway two stations to Tiananmen Square, and walked for about 15 minutes, into a net of back alleys. The restaurant – which didn’t even look like a restaurant – was small and family run. We had to walk into a small hallway, through the backyard, pass the kitchen (I hope the water I saw wasn’t dishwater) and into our room. It was a small private room dominated by a large round table. Light brown panel on the lower part of the walls, painted at the top, pictures with Chinese signs, a large red lantern in the ceiling. On the table there was a round plastic thing that can be turned around so that everyone at the table can reach all the food. Kath ordered for us, a whole string of dishes, ending with Peking Duck. Imagine eating Peking Duck in Peking – what a thrill! You ate it with small, rounded pancakes (which were so thin that they were almost see-through), using a delicious brown sauce, and sprinkling it with stripes of some kind of thinly cut onion, and then the duck meat. All the food was fantastic. I got a cramp in my fingers, though, because of my attempt to eat with chopsticks – an art I have never mastered. All in all a very nice dinner, although I was so tired from the flight that I could hardly keep my eyes open. 

When we ventured outside again it was dark. There weren’t many street lights, but people were still sitting around in the streets and talking, playing cards etc. The houses are very simple, grey, low brick houses. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of another world through an open window or door. A low housing standard, but certainly not slum. A very distinct kind of charm in these neighbourhoods. 

The majority of the group chose to walk home via Tiananmen Square, but I was too tired. I also had large blisters from my walk earlier in the day. So for 3 Yuan I took the subway back to the hotel along with a few of the others, and jumped into bed fearly early. The subway is a very easy way to get around, by the way. There are only two lines, one East-West Line and one Circle Line. These two lines intersect in two places, and it costs 3 Yuan no matter how far you go.