Ni Hao Beijing

Finding a hostel after virtually sleepless night on a train is not the easiest task, I promise you. After making it on the subway to the station right by our hostel the group of us (now 5, Dan, Jonathon, Josh Lisa and myself) wandered in numerous directions looking for a glimmer of hope. With help from a few locals and Josh’s keen eye for westerners we managed after over an hour to find it, Happy Dragon Courtyard. Not surprisingly it was less than 100 meters from the station exit.

Although we all wanted to sleep we all knew that that wasn’t and option. So after a short hour rest at the hostel accompanied by an English breakfast at the café in the hostel we managed to motivate ourselves to head out. The guys I was now travelling with had all been teaching in Wuhan for 5 weeks and had a Chinese friend working in Beijing (Berlin) who was happy to meet us for some lunch. He took us out to a restaurant not far from our hostel, as usual the food was great and although slightly pricier here than in Wuhan, still a fair way from the UK prices.

Beijing Restaurant One

At this point Benji another friend of Lisa’s from teaching in Wuhan joined us. Me and Benji had to head back to the hostel to drop off/pick up some things and also Benji needed to find a place to stay as he had not been able to book a hostel before hand. We planned to meet the rest of the group at Tiananmen square later in the afternoon to see the sites but finding a hostel for Benji was not as easy as first thought. We were here in the peak season during August and so most hostels were booked up and without having internet at this point we didn’t even know where to look. Again after wandering and searching and probing locals we found a hostel with a space and tried to catch up with the rest of the gang.

Unfortunately we had been so much longer they had all moved on to visit the Temple of Heaven. Me and Benji decided to just carry on with Tiananmen square as we did not have too much time left and I had to visit that area to collect my pack for The Color Run that we were all taking part in the following day. 

Although we did not manage to catch up to the Temple of Heaven we had all reserved tickets for an acrobats show in the evening. This show was nothing less than incredible. The hour long show held us all in suspense and tension throughout. Feats of skill, strength and shear courage were displayed in a number of different styled performances. The show began with a short opening act containing a mixture of dance and gymnastics. It then began to push the excitement level up with a piece involving a single female balancing on a stack of chairs of increasing height reaching a death defying height. Other acts that followed were each in their own style and yet still entertaining and mind blowing. One performance particularly astonishing involved bowls balanced on a female gymnast whilst they are lifted, thrown and balanced from the palms of male gymnasts with incredible upper body strength.

The show was rounded up with a finale that was not, in my opinion, related to gymnastics. Yet it still managed to astonish as the rest of the show preceding it had.  A large spherical cage was brought into view and its familiarity was unmistaken, I guessed before I heard the roar of its engine that motorcyclists were about to find themselves inside it. As expected as well further motorcyclists began to join him. What I hadn’t expected was that ultimately 8 more motorcyclists would follow the first. This nail biting show was an exciting and brilliant end to a performance not to be missed if ever visiting China.

Acrobat Show

 My camera sadly had run out of battery at this point so hopefully I will be able to add some pictures later on once I have had time to catch up with the rest of the group who are now back in Wuhan as I write this. 

The night was followed by another meeting with Berlin who took us out to a bar street for some food and a few drinks. Once again the food did not disappoint and neither to my delight did the local beers. As the night grew on us though we all began to truly feel the pains of 40 hours without sleep and so by 2am we decided that we had to head back.