My time in HK was coming to an end and I had not managed to explore much else of Asia. There are a lot of places I had always wanted to explore, but China was pretty up there. Probably due to the fact that some great relative

It was relatively easy to get a visa from HK so I managed to book a 3 days tour in Beijing with a day in Xi’an.

Friends had warned me of flight delays into and out of China and that later flights are at risk of being delayed into the next day so I had booked the earliest flight I could which would also mean I would need to get the first train at 5.40am

Low and behold the plane was over 2 hours late.

After landing and getting to the airport. I rested for a bit before Wendy a friend from HK who had relocated back to Beijing had kindly taken some time out to show me round.

I grabbed some food at a local restaurant. I asked Wendy to suggest some dishes and she had ordered a spicy hotpot and duck feet with mustard. Both incredibly delicious. Offal is heavily used in Beijing cuisine and the hot put included intestines and congealed pigs blood.

We walked around some local streets where there were tea, medicine and silk shops in a traditional buildings. Adjoining streets however clearly had lots of refurbishment but in a similar traditional feel except they were filled with souveniers, McDs, Zara, H&M and New Balance.

We walked around a lake close by where there tonnes of lotus flowers. The banks were filled with live music bars, restaurants and snacks.

Haven been taken care off from location to location I realised how difficult it was to get around 1. with out a car, 2. without speaking Chinese. They have a number of Uber equivalents that you can pay with a whatapp equivalent. The amazing thing here is the time to market with apps in insane. They can copy a global app for a China only market and still make a killing.

Dinner was local lamb hotpot chain. Gamey but pretty tasty.