Back in Beijing

Finally 10 days later than originally planned I have made it back to Beijing. The trip seems to have been just not meant to happen. First visa delays - then it was valid for only 10 days - only my pre Olympic Visa was issued which means I still have to get an extension. And then on the day of travel a mad rush to get my equipment list printed out and chopped by the Chinese Embassy so I could import and export it without any problems.



The last time I was here was for the Hong Kong Handover and I was expecting the city to be very similar - very loud, very atmospheric and full of Olympic propaganda. Nothing like that at all really. Lots of new buildings and newer ones, traffic that albeit slow does move but with a real ordilay fashion and a city that is peaceful and could be any other capital city in South East Asia. As for propaganda - nothing. The only signs so far have been a couple of corporate sponsorship billboards on offices. A dramatic change on the face of it.



My room has one of the best layouts that works well. I wish more hotels did this ( but it does take up space). It's split level with the lounge area downstairs, good for all the work stuff and the bedroom upstairs, where I can have my mess that no one can see!

Sadly TV choice is terrible so I most of the time I'm going to be listening to Virgin Radio over the net, as I am at the moment. To make it worse I can't watch BBC iPlayer stuff as I'm in China and my special token thing connects directly to work and makes my computer look like its in the UK expired at the end of June which means NO Dr Who to wake up to on Sunday morning!!

So far lunches and dinners, as usual with China, were great - including the Thai and Spanish Tapas. I am so looking forward to dim sum and dumplings. Hmmmm. According to the scales on the hotel I'm 98.5kg. I reckon in three weeks it will be well over 100kg. Not a goal trust me!