China - First impressions

We arrived in Beijing on 23rd August to a technicolour dawn ... well, that's how it should have been; in practice, we arrived to a 'technicolour yawn' courtesy of Tris who'd just had a smoothie for breakfast and wasn't feeling well. It was a beautiful day and a huge, modern, deserted airport with smartly-dressed attendants who were very keen to help. That is an enduring impression of Chinese people - they're cheery and helpful.

The roads may be broad but the rules aren't quite the same: 2 Mins after leaving the airport, our driver missed a turn so he stayed in lane, stopped and then reversed down the motorway.

We stayed in a serviced apartment for the first two months (the picture shows the view from the master bedroom) while we found schools and a house. It was a big apartment with marble floors, more bathrooms than we needed; a tiny kitchen with no windows and a bedroom for a servant (called an 'Ayi') which was only slightly longer than a bed, had no windows and no ventilation - cooking was obviously supposed to be done by the Ayi so there was no point creating a comfy kitchen! We decided that we wouldn't be comfortable with someone living in a shoebox and waiting on us.