Welcome to China - Land of Contradictions

The ferry saw us land at Qingdao Port on the North East Coast of China. It occured to us after the fact that entering a country through a shipping port is not the best way to get the first impression of a country. To say I was shit scared was an understatement. Jazzy of course was holding firm that it 'wasn't that bad' (he conceded later that yes, in fact, it was that bad). The minute we stepped out of the terminal taxi drivers were screaming at us to use their taxi, we declined with the intention of taking a train. The area was like nothing I have ever seen. To say it was dilapitated is being too generous. We dragged our way through the road/footpath/dirt along the train line looking for the station which was nowhere to be found. Finally we stumbled accross a ticketing desk but the clerk would not help us - literally, he just sat in his office ignoring our existence. So out to get a taxi we went. After numerous attempts we finally flagged one down. The question of our cases was too much for him though. It took us a full five minutes to get into the taxi and moving.

So taxi rides in China. O.M.G. I sat in the back with my eyes closed praying for a swift and painless death. There appear to be no road rules. The only road rule is to use your horn constantly and scare the hell out of your passengers, pedestrians and other motorists. I have seen no evidence to disprove this threory in the taxi rides we have taken since. He did however, get us to the hotel safe and unscathed. It was one of those rare moments where we wanted to get into the comfort of the hotel room and ignore that there is a big bad world outside the door. But we persisted and headed down to the train station to get our tickets to Beijing for the next morning. The city was depressing. It was dirty, manic, chaotic - the exact opposite of all that Japan had been.

The train trip to Beijing and the taxi ride to the hotel were just as intolerable. We could not find our hotel at all, and the taxi driver parked his car in the middle of the road twice and got out to ask directions whilst other motorists beeped their horns around him. We finally just said let us out here and figured we would make better on foot. We spent about 20 minutes going around in circles in the tiny, smelly and dilapitated Hutongs of Beijings West, until finally at the very end of a tiny dead end Hutong we found a door.... our door.... that led into an amazing oasis. It's called Kellys Courtyard and it is the most beautiful, unexpected little getaway we could wish for. The furnishings are classical and stylish, the room is unbelievably cosy, the rooftop garden and the court yard are delightful to relax in.

Finally our China trip had started. Since then things have been fabulous. We are loving this city and seeing heaps every day. Tomorrow we'll tell you about Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.