Beijing and Hong Kong

Wow, it certainly has been a busy week for me so I guess the best place to begin is the very beginning.

After an exhausting 18 journey from London including a 4 hour stop over in Dubai I arrived in bright, sunny Beijing. Beijing was a fantastic place sight seeing wise and boy was there a lot to do. The first day I spent walking around the city and exploring the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, Jingshan Park, hutongs and markets. The Forbidden City is where the Chinese Emperors used to live and was completely banned from the public, hence the name. The architecture is traditional Chinese and completely beautiful. All the buildings are made with wood and panted in beautiful colours. There are large pots all over the grounds which used to be full of water to put out fires. You can look into loads of the buildings and see all of the ancient treasures, it's completely amazing! After walking around the Forbidden City and the beautiful Imperial Gardens I walked down to Tiananmen Square. There were guards all over the place making sure protests break out and keeping a look out for any other trouble.

In the afternoon I attempted to find a place to eat lunch mentioned in my tour book. I spent ages trying to find the restaurant only to discover it was full. So I walked around the hutongs (traditional Chinese streets) and found another place that served all kinds of weird meals. After lunch I explored the Temple of Heaven Park and more Chinese architecture and climbed to the top of Jingshan Park to see over the city and all the roofs on the Forbidden City.

After an exhausting day walking I rushed back to my hostel Peking International (lovely place) and went out to see some Chinese Acrobatics which was completely amazing! Those people can move in ways you wouldn't even imagine!

Wednesday was my Chinese high light because it was the day I walked along the Great Wall of China. Words cannot describe how amazing this day was. The views were the most fantastic I have ever seen, walking across the crumbled ruins for 3 hours was breath taking and I can't wait to show you all the photos. It was an exhausting trek but completely worth it, amazing!!!!

That evening I walked through the night market and saw all the weird food on sticks e.g. snakes, beetles and worms, gross!!! I also went out for some famous Peking duck which was completely delicious. Beijing was a fantastic experience, the Chinese traditions were beautiful but the hygiene was disgusting. Their toilets are literally holes in the ground and completely horrid!!!!

On Thursday I flew to Hong Kong to met Charlotte. We've had such a fun time here and I'll be so sad to leave, Hong Kong really is one of the most amazing places on earth. The first night there we went out with Charlotte's work colleges in the famous Lan Kwai Fong where the atmosphere was buzzing and the people were in abundance. Everyone was playing ICE where you have to kneel down when presented with a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and down it! The next thing we knew one guy had bought an entire crate of bottles, hilarious!!! After exploring many bars including one on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper with amazing views we headed home to sleep in preparation for a few days of sight seeing.

On Friday we went for delicious Dim Sum for lunch followed by the bird and ladies market where I bought a few cheap treats. We got the famous Star Ferry across to the markets and back again so at night when all the building had their lights on the views were fantastic. In the evening we went out for Mexican food (a welcome change from Chinese) and headed back to the flat.

Yesterday, we went over to Lantau to see the massive Buddha. after queueing for what felt like forever we got the chair lift over the island where the views were stunning. After climbing 200+ stairs to see the Buddha which was amazing we had some noodles for lunch and joined the queue again for the chair lift again. We headed back to the flat for dinner and then went up to The Peak to see more stunning views of Hong Kong a night. The Peak is the largest viewing point on the island and boy were the views incredible. There really is no other place on earth like the Hong Kong skyline, it is completely breathing taking a night with all the sky scrapes and lights. After a few cocktails at The Peak we caught the rickety tram back down the hill.

My time in Hong Kong with Charlotte has been amazing. I've seen so much, been to so many places and experiences so many things. This city is probably one of the best places I've ever been and I hope I can come back one day. Compared to Beijing, Hong Kong is so clean and exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed both places and am really looking forward to meeting Daire and Claudia in Hanoi, Vietnam later!

See you later x