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Despite leaving Amsterdam an hour late, the flight arrived Beijing one time. The China Southern Airline flight CS0346 was rather pleasant - no more horror stories about ex-Soviet planes for the Chinese airlines. This one was a modern Boeing 777. The service was rather friendly too. So perhaps the Chinese aviation has caught up with the rest of the world finally. The in-flight magazine was mainly in Chinese, with only the article titles translated into English - so this must be boring for most non-Chinese speakers. Unlike most airline magazines, this one really was a showcase of the Chinese airlines staff, singing praisese of how good the crews were - some rather interesting groups such as the all-male air-crew in Jiangsu division.

The arrival hall in the modern Beijing airport is a bit chaotic - I should have remembered. Loads of people waiting for friends and relatives, and cab drivers touting for business. Doesn't help when other impatient passengers are trying to run me over with their speedy carts loaded with mega-tons of luggage. Still, I managed to battle my way through unharmed. Tried to find something to do, to kill the four and a half hours wait - the arrival hall is not exactly a relaxing place. So I went to investigate the possibility of taking a short tour at the Information Centre- 400 yuabs for a cab ride to and from the Great Wall, and 600 yuans for a tour of Beijing.... Not exactly cheap but then when I sat down in a cafe sipping Lungjiang tea I realised that it was not that expensive after all. So might just do something.

Juyungguan Great Wall, Beijing I ended up going to the left luggage and deposited my big case there, and then asked the chap there to get me a cab to Juyungguan. However he didn't seem to know how to get there and tried to persuade me to go to Badaling or Mutianyu. So being suspicious as usual, I went back to the Information Centre to try to find out the place and get a cab there. Then the two parties broke out into argument, both wanting my business. I must say that after a long flight plus the prospect of a long wait before the Xi'an flight, I was on short fuse already. So I was quite ready to walk away, and did so for a minute. In the end I went for the left luggage guy's 400-yuan deal (plus 60 yuans toll fees). I was quite skeptical and worried as I have heard and read horror stories about people being ripped off by cab drivers. The guy wanted to come with me as my tour guide as he thought I couldn't speak any Mandarin (up to this point I was speaking in English), but I insisted that I was OK on my own - how he could have got away from work just like that in the middle of the day, I really have no idea. But after my insistence, he didn't join me (thank God for that!).

The trip to Juyungguan took just over 45 minutes via the 5th ring road, arriving at the entrance just after 2pm. Wow, how things have changed in Beijing - Last time I was in Beijing in 200, the 4th ring road was barely open! Had a good practice in Mandarin with the female cab driver, who was actually from Beijing herself. So understanding her was not too much of a problem.

Me at Juyungguan Great Wall, Beijing Entrance to Juyungguan cost 40 yuans, but in a way it's pretty good value for money. No one's following me around trying to sell me tacky souvenirs, and the scene of the Great Wall is varied and interesting. Apart from the Fort Tower, part of the wall crosses a body of water (not sure if it's a river or not) ,and some rather steep part of the Great Wall too, but without the obligatory chairlift or cable cars in sight like Mutianyu or Simatai. I spent about an hour and a hour there, before returning to the cab for the journey back to the airport.

On the way back we took the 6th Ring Road (What???? As if five ring roads are not enough already.... But I guess they have to prepare for the Olympics! Imagine having another 4 London orbitals for 2012?!). The driver asked if I needed to go to a hotel (or "binguan") for freshening up and as usual my untrusting instinct kicked in and declined the offer. But then I didn't have time anyway. I was so glad to see the airport, but at the same time very angry with myself. These Beijing residents were just trying to help a foreigner and made him feel welcome, and yet I treated them like the untrustworthy taxi drivers in Europe and some other parts of the world who can be so dishonest and try to rip off anyone from out of town. Is it me or is it just a sad trend in this world? And how could I forget the friendliness and helpfulness of Beijingers - it's exactly these qualities that I love Beijing so much.

I hanged around the arrival hall from 4.45pm onwards, and couldn't see anyone holding the World Expedition placard. So at 5.20pm I decided to go to the domestic departure and tried my luck. Still no guide but somehow I managed to bump into the rest of my tour group members - even they managed to miss the guide it appeared. There were 6 of them. After a quick round of introductions (names were forgotten as soon as I was introducted to another person), we went to the Information Bureau asking for help - fortunately I got the guide's mobile number. The information bureau staff took pity on us and helped us ring the guide, Ms Zhang, who finally managed to come and greet us. Her little piece of paper had all our names scribbled on, but in a very faint colour that unless you are within 2 feet of the paper, there's no way you could see anything, and the paper had no mention of World Expedition either - no wonder we all missed her despite the fact that she was waiting at the arrival hall since 4pm! Ms Zhang's English was not brilliant and so I ended up stepping in as interpreter / tour guide. As I seemed to be the only one in the group who's had experience with domestic flights, so I ended up doing half of the work of a tour guide eg paying for the airport tax, and returning the right ticket and passport back to everyone. Another chance of learning the names of my fellow tour members but somehow it still failed me.

After a 2-hour wait, the plane finally took off for Xi'an. The 1 hour 45 minutes journey was non-descriptive but I was so tired that all I wanted was to get to the hotel in Xi'an as quickly as possible, and to slump into the bed.

We were greeted at Xi'an airport by our tour guide Andy, who speaks extremely good English. He told us that the rather new Xi'an airport terminal has only been in use for three days - how lucky we were to arrive at a spanking new airport! Andy is a Chinese history major and he studied at Northwest University in Xi'an, and I think he's about the same age as me.

We got to the Bell Tower Hotel just after 11pm, and I got a whole room (room 616) to myself (the joy of being the sore thumb sticking out in the group!) - after a shower I jumpted straight into bed. By this time I really couldn't care about anything else in this world.

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