Beautiful Downtown Beijing

It's official: I'm going to Beijing. This trip will have many Firsts. For instance:
  • First time needing a visa for entry to a country. One of the questions on the application form: "Purpose of your journey in China." Gooooooood question! To attain enlightenment? To mold a new vision of myself within the greater scheme of life and the world? To be a tourist?
  • First time visiting a communist country. I went to Hong Kong last year, but that doesn't count as a communist country in my book. Why? Because. Don't ask so many questions. They don't like it when you ask so many questions.
  • First time flying on a plane that has a dragon on it. Why does this excite me? It's called DragaonAir for pete's sake, of COURSE it'll have a dragon on it.
  • First time visiting a place where it's pretty much required to enlist the services of a guide/translator because literally nobody there speaks the same language as I do. The prospect of this simultaneously excites me and freaks me the fuck out. Mostly exciting. And freaky.

I'll have to follow this up when I get back to add to what is sure to be a longer list of firsts. Hopefully I'll be able to add firsts like "Visited the Forbidden City" or "Stood on the Great Wall of China" or "Caused international incident with chopstick".

Excited is an understatement. The only thing that could make this trip more anticipated is if I was sharing it with Surfer Boy or Me Mum or any of my friends. Anyone wanna go to China with me? Hello? Anyone? Bueller? What? You don't have a few extra thousand dollars sitting around? Yeah, me neither. I'll just work out how I'm paying for it later. Gulp.

Comments

Life said…
I think the babies would still be free on an airplane. We'll just go with you. Hours and hours on an international flight with three toddlers- it'll be fun!
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Unknown said…
if only. alas, the money is not there. granted, it wasn't there for australia, either, but i could rationalize the credit card use a bit more then than i can now. wow, beijing...it is exciting...and a bit scary.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
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