Half a world away

So this is the first post written officially on our travels. Sorry for the wait but being in China as great as it was, meant we were rather cut off. We also had no time to get on the Internet because we were so busy. Another factor was that the Internet over there is heavily restricted. But hey, we're here now so let's start from the beginning...

We caught our first flight which seems an age ago now. It was a long flight but we were kept well entertained by the films they had available to watch. We weren't subtle about being new fliers. Both of us were practically squealing in delight at all the free things we're being given and snapping away taking these photos. 

After another connecting flight from HongKong to Beijing, we finally reached our destination. By this point neither Ellen nor I were feeling so hot. What made us feel worse was when we were met by our transfer to the tour group. We were expecting a nice friendly welcome from a person that spoke good English. Instead, we were greeted by a man who was in a rush and spoke not a word of English. Actually, I tell a lie. He did say sorry when he dropped my case!
After a ride in scary Beijing traffic in an old banger of a car, we arrived in a lovely hotel and met the rest of the group. And so commenced the tour.

Some things we quickly discovered about China:

• It's BIG!
• Everyone stares at you because your white and in Ellen's case, Ginger haired.
• They don't stop trying to sell things to you.
• Their food is pretty good!
• The weather we had was amazing; blue sky everyday.
• The Chinese spit. A lot.

I have a feeling that this will take forever to update ALL of china in one go so I think what I'll do is put a few posts on throughout the next dew days if I can. I'm paying for Internet at the mo in our hostel and am running out of time!!

Below though are pictures of our first evening out to give you a taster of our Chinese lifestyle.