Bye Bye Beijing

Well, I'm back in the UK. I've been home for a week and a day - my goodness is it strange to be back! It's a decision I was brewing over for some time, and it wasn't an easy one to make. However, I always knew I wanted to leave while there were things (and people) I would miss, and there are plenty of both. I've had an amazing year, some fantastic experiences, been through the rollercoaster of highs and lows and I'm ready for a new challenge. London calling... or something like that.

My last few days in China were a frenzy of getting things done - particularly some travel writing I was commissioned to do for www.everytrail.com. I wrote tours to The Summer Palace and Kunming Lake, The Olympic Park, the Lama temple and Nanluoguxiang hutong and to the Great Wall at Badaling. It was a really interesting experience, visiting somewhere and keeping a specific eye out for what tourists need to know and how to go about doing stuff then marrying it up with a)interesting information to make people want to go the places I'm writing about, and b)formatting in line with the website's. Also, and I hope this isn't a developing theme for when I visit somewhere/ something I'm intending to write about, it rained heavily on every occasion. Nice.

I spent my last day in Beijing doing some of the challenges that were suggested to me by some good buddies over dinner on my penultimate night. I went to Jinshan Park behind the Forbidden City for a view over the whole of Beijing, visited the Pearl Market and ate scorpions on Wangfujing (three touristy things I'd missed out on thus far) - I didn't quite manage everything on the list, but heyho it's a reason to go back. Scorpions, in case you're wondering, just taste of deep-fried spicy crunch. The Pearl Market was super cheap and pretty calm compared to other markets in China, but the bustle of the Silk Market is more fun. The view from the hilltop pavilion that is the raison d'etre of Jinshan Park was lost in the filth of a muggy Beijing pollution day - a far cry from the blue skies, breeze and wafting floral scents of my parent's garden where I'm writing this. However, this is Derby and that was Beijing so I guess it's swings and roundabouts.


After a last dinner with some more friends, and finishing off packing (everything, including souvenirs, fit into the bags I came out with - how proud am I?) I got a ride to the airport for my flight home, again in the pouring rain. I flew with Aerosvit, a Ukraininan airline, changing at Kiev. I'm not sure what I did, but somehow I got upgraded to Business on the flight from Beijing to Kiev and had three seats to myself so I could stretch out and sleep. It must've been the Indiana Jones t-shirt... or me being polite in an empty airport at 3am, or the ridiculously early flight time. Whatever it was, it meant I arrived reasonably fresh faced for the transfer and got over any remaining jetlag pretty quickly. I always knew I liked the Ukraine...


Mum and Dad met me at the airport with a pork pie, apple juice and the wherewithall for ham sandwiches - maybe not a triumphant return to my homeland, but oh boy it was homely. So, what now for me? Well, first conquering action is to get a job. After that the top 3 things on my list are 1) save money for clearing debts and a big trip somewhere down the line, 2) carry on writing and get published somewhere in the UK, and 3) get some skills to make me an uber employable prospect (not to detract from my current level of *hopefully* super employable what with all my transferable skills and life experience...) - a fluent second language would be handy, some website creation/design skills and maybe something a bit left field like massage are all in my sightlines. One thing's for sure, the last year has made its mark and my horizons have been irrevocably broadened and (as you've heard me say so often) "I've got a Plan." Watch this space.