London – Beijing – 29th – 30th April 2014 – Tour day 1

We left Heathrow on time in a plane with 186 spare seats in economy. Uneventful flight and landed in Beijing on time at 9.30, somewhat tired from a fitful night’s sleep.

Went through immigration with no problems, despite pre landing concerns and were met once we had our bags by the transfer company. We reached our hotel at about 11 am, so all in all, a pretty straightforward journey. One quick shower later and we regrouped in the hotel bar for our first Chinese beer.

Our group meeting to meet our fellow travellers and tour leader wasn’t scheduled until 6pm so we went for a walk. The hotel is ideally located, just a walk away from the Forbidden City and Tian’anmen Square. The sun was out and it was hot work.

We didn’t end up going into the Forbidden City because it was already 2pm and pretty crowded. Besides, we were both flagging after limited sleep on the plane so decided to head back to try and get a quick kip before meeting the rest of the group.

Refreshed we met up with our group (5 Aussies, 1 Swiss, 1 Polish living in UK and one other Brit), and of course our Tibetan guide. Then we headed to a local restaurant for a shared meal of Peking Duck and other dishes. Early night, as 7am start to see the Great Wall tomorrow!