Hello Beijing

The flight was fine slightly delayed due to a fault on the plane and they had to switch aircrafts but that seems to be pretty common when it comes to Kris and I travelling. We arrived in Beijing airport and managed to get on a public shuttle bus for £1.60 each to drive us an hour into Central Beijing, we then had the joy of trying to find the train station ticket office to get our next train to Xian. This is a 12 hour overnight journey and we were going to book bunk beds but quickly found out they were fully booked so we had no choice but to book a normal seat for the overnight trip (lets hope I am not sitting next to a chicken)!

So after a very hot and sweaty trek from the train station we waited for a taxi which proved to be hilarious trying to explain to someone that spoke no English where we wanted to go. After a lot of ranting at us he drove and dumped us (and luggage) at the side of a road and pointed in a direction.

Thanks to Kris's excellent planning we managed to track down our hostel which although very very basic is a nice relief from the heat and smog of Beijing. After collapsing on our beds we have just taken stock of our adventure so far looked at the tickets and realised the lady booked us on a train a day too early. So only 2 nights in Beijing we are off to explore as much as possible before the journey continues....