It was our last day in Beijing and we were sorry to be leaving having enjoyed it so much. We felt very much like we had barely scratched the surface and hadnt really seen the "real" city, instead spending much of our time doing the tourist things. But hey, we are tourists so I suppose thats forgiveable. Speaking of which, we had a morning spare before we had to leave for our flight and you will be pleased to hear we finally found our fabled scorpion kebabs, though we werent able to pluck up the courage to try the decidedly untastey looking snack. It would also appear that it was a bit of a tourist gimmick, as even the domestic tourists were snapping away - with cameras I mean, not in the culinary sense! Nevertheless, its an odd sight seeing squirming insects on skewers, ready to eat. They were not alone either, with other such delicacies as whole sparrow on a stick, and flattened lizard on offer. Why ambassador, with these deep fried starfish you are really spoiling us...
See pictures and videos here:
In stark contrast to the crispy critters, Nikala wanted to show you all that the bakeries here are fantastic!
So as I was saying, having really enjoyed the morning we sadly had to leave and make our way to the airport to catch our 18:30 flight to the next city on our list, Xi'An, where we would be visiting the Terracotta Army. Wanting to ensure we ran into no problems we got there good and early for check in at about 15:45, everything went like clockwork and we were through security and sitting in the lovely new terminal with just a short wait until our flight boarded. Sadly it boarded about 15 minutes late, but thats nothing, right? So there we are on the plane, ready for our short 1.45 hour flight, we were the only westerners in sight, and it really felt like we were setting off on an adventure. Oh how proud we were that we had successfully navigated our way through this potentially tricky endeavour, this transfer thing was going to be a breeze. We even had time to watch a movie on the laptop.
Anyway to cut a long - a very long and very dull - story short, here are the highlights:
1. Bad weather, thunder and lighting storms mean we can t leave Beijing.
2. We stay in the Airport for 43 hours, not really understanding what we were supposed to do.
3. We experience the full range of emotions to their extremes.
4. After some tears when we realise we have not only missed seeing the Xi'An and the Terracotta Army, but we might now miss the start of the tour in Shanghai too, some lovely people step in and come to our aid.
5. Seeing our distress several locals argue with officials on our behalf and then give us their contact details in case we need help at any other time throughout our entire trip in China.
6. We finally leave Beijing having only slept for a total of 2 hours during the whole ordeal.
7. We arrive at our hotel and crash in a bed for 2 hours before leaving for the airport to head to Shanghai.
So back at the beginning, we both thought we had barely scrathced the surface of Beijing. But by the end, we were pleased to be leaving.
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