A first quick message on the blog having sorted out all the packing and organisation! It's amazing how many little things there are to resolve ahead of a trip like this! I'm very excited about the prospect - it's taken a long time to organise and I can't wait to get going!
Some of you may be thinking "why China and why Chinese"?! Well, it all goes back to last summer when I woke up one morning to hear the BBC Radio 4 Today programme announce the opening of the final section of the Beijing - Tibet train line, describing this incredible feat of engineering travelling at nearly 5000m across the Tibetan plateau. Lying there I thought to myself - "that would be a trip and a half!" And there it might have ended, as a passing idea, if not for the fact that on the very same morning on the Brussels metro I happened to be stood next to a Chinese girl reading a Chinese text and I thought to myself - now that would be a challenge! And with that I decided that if I wanted to go to China and do the trip to Tibet I should look at learning some Mandarin (Tibetan is for next year!)....!
Fast forward one year and a completed first year of Mandarin - having somewhat bizarrely finished second in the class - and I'm ready to go! The plan is to spend the first five days in Beijing studying Mandarin. I have taken 20 classes of 1-2-1 tuition so it should allow me to polish up my skills before heading off. The classes will be in the morning, leaving enough time for all the sightseeing! On Friday I will join the tour from Beijing to Tibet - we will spend around 10 days travelling through the north of China, visiting among others Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors, the Yellow River and a variety of intriguing places along route! Hopefully there will be internet so I can update this! The final train to Tibet departs from Qinghai province one late afternoon and arrives 24 hours later in Lhasa - the trip through the Tibetan plateau should be superb, and then I'll spend 4 days or so in Lhasa visiting all the sites, before returning to Beijing!
From this point, I become an independent! The plan is to catch the night train from Beijing to Shanghai on July 22, spend four days there, before moving on to Guilin in the south to do a four day Cantonese cooking course in Yangshou! From there I'll catch another train to Shenzhen and Hong Kong, spending four days there before heading home on August 5!
I'm looking at the clock now and guess I should go! I hope you enjoy checking this blog from time to time and hopefully I shall be able to update fairly frequently!
All the best!
Rob
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