Writing up my diaries, it seems that China really did get the better of me and my Moleskine. What lies below is the last full entry, after here it’s just random scattered notes that I’ll do my best to put into some kind of coherent timeline. Wish me luck…

Moleskine Entry April 24th 2011
- Bejing (and China in general actually) is beautiful. Stunning even. I am more at peace now than I think I have ever been. I am calm and immensely happy.
- We have been busy.
We arrived on April 22nd. It was raining. Hard, Asian, Bladerunner-esque city rain.
It was perfect.
I had video to show you, but it never saved – this makes me sad, but I think the definition above does it justice.

After checking into our hotel and getting our debrief, we ventured out for some food.
OH MY GOD THE FOOD.


Plus, naturally, my first experience of Chinglish.

Eight ate, total? £40. You can see why we love it here.
After our appetites were full sated, we ventured out to the bizarre food market to try out the the strange delicacies therein.


I ate a scorpion. Nuff said.
The lights, the buzz, the constant chatter of bartering; the atmosphere is enchanting. With my new found friends in tow, we continued.
Our guide had mentioned a lake far north of the city surrounded by bars. It was a fair old walk but we found it, eventually.

Walk far enough around and you’ll make your way past the over-priced tourist spots and find more appeasing, friendly bars who create new prices on the spot (and, when asked nicely, will let you play your phone’s Spotify playlist through in-house sound system).
It was ace.
Which leads us nicely to yesterday; April 23rd:Â Mao Money, Mao Problems
Today we did as much as we could. We’ve planned to do the wall tomorrow and as such, the others don’t have much time left to do the tourist bit. Our honcho this time ’round is a bit more hands off, choosing to show/tell us things and then let us find our own way.
Things we did:
— – — – Whatley out
