China Anniversary Trip: Day 1

We flew from Auckland, NZ to Sydney, Australia and then had a long wait at the airport for our flight to Beijing, China but we kept ourselves entertained.  I didn't quite realise how long the flight to China would be, anything less than the 30 hour journeys to visit family in Scotland seems short!  I also didn't realise just how big Australia is, it took hours to fly over it.

We arrived at Beijing airport quite late at night and the trains stop running about 11pm but we had planned to get a taxi anyway.  Happily the signs were in English as well as Chinese so we followed the directions to get the official taxi ranks.  We had the name of the hotel written down in Chinese so we could show the driver and we were able to just relax and enjoy our midnight ride into Beijing CBD.

Our hotel was amazing and modernly fancy with big LCD screens in lobby.  This was definitely a very special vacation.

The next day, feeling refreshed and ready to start our adventure, we decided to take a walk around and get to know our surroundings a bit better.

Our hotel is part of the World Trade Centre, with a fancy shopping mall underneath and lots of nice restaurants and eateries.  And right outside is the CCTV building.

We came across a figure skating competition happening in the ice rink that was in the mall.  The kids were so cute and Kane and I were reminded of our own ice skating lessons.

People (family members, I presume) would through teddy bears and other stuffed toys onto the ice as the skater took their bows.

We found a grocery store and picked up some breakfast and light meal supplies then after dropping them off in our room we went to the Temple of the Sun Park.

The road along to the Temple of the Sun houses lots and lots of embassies and Kane and I had fun identifying all the flags.

Turns out you're not supposed to take pictures.

Being here made me so happy; listening to the sounds of music and watching people having fun.

 

  I found out that this bird is a type of magpie and I just loved its colours.

 

The park was full of different activities, from these ladies dancing, to people singing to playing mahjong, cards, chess, table tennis to using the exercise equipment and climbing wall.

After wandering around fully soaking up the sights and sounds we headed back to our hotel and the pub to have a nice beer and get ready for our first tour the following day.