Day seventeen

Just travel today. Before we left the hotel, C asked me how much 15kg was in stone and I answered immediately with 9 stone to which C replied, It’s not 9 stone, Emily. I’ve not been walking around with a person on my back. I was laughing so much I couldn’t stand up. For those interested, it’s more like 2 stone and a bit.

We got to the train station and it was similar to airport security. It took ages and my passport never works so it’s always a right pain. We’d planned to go to Starbucks but we didn’t have time. Once on the train, it was great. An amazing thing about it was that you could order food from, for example, Starbucks and then it would be picked up at the next station and distributed by the train staff. Incredible!

We went for food and wandered about near the hotel. We bought Starbucks to have in the hotel for breakfast the next morning before we were leaving because it was an early start.

Day eighteen

We’d come to Beijing to be able to see The Great Wall of China. We booked onto a tour and I think we had to be at the bus for maybe 6am (maybe not that early). Anyway, we went and got coffee at Starbucks – we had to wait outside until it opened and then got on the coach to go to the Jinshan part of the wall. There was no one there really apart from our group so it’s probably the best bit to go to.

The views were great. Most of the wall was fine to walk along. Some of it was quite steep and some a bit rubbly. It was pretty easy to manage though. I did it in my beloved Converse.

Day nineteen

In the morning we trotted about. We stayed at the Muji Hotel (the logic being maybe if they didn’t speak English they might speak Japanese but that wasn’t the case) and had breakfast there but it wasn’t that good for vegetarians.

We got the train over to go to the Summer Palace but stopped in Starbucks on the way for lunch which was just what we normally had at breakfast but at lunchtime instead.

The Summer Palace was rammed of course. We went on a boat across the lake and then just sat under a tree for ages. Once we came out, we were starving so we went to Pizza Hut. We had eaten Chinese food the previous two nights though!

Day twenty

Home time. I left for the airport earlier than C and we decided that because she had such a long flight back to the UK it was better for her to try and get a bit of extra sleep. I flew with ANA and my pants matched the colour of the blanket on the plane exactly! Before I boarded though, just time for my farewell Starbucks!

We’d spent nearly £100 in Starbucks between us in China which is really bad but also not as bad as I had thought it was going to be. So what’s the take away? Should have gone more? Not sure.

Emily