This morning we were off to see the Pandas at the Beijing Zoo.

Confession time – when planning this trip I had no intention of seeing pandas.  The only way to really see pandas when visiting China in my opinion was a visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Pandas.  Chengdu is NOWHERE NEAR any of the cities we were visiting and it was just going to be a logistical nightmare to get there so I had crossed pandas off.  That is until husband asks 2 weeks prior to the trip – “so we will be seeing pandas right???”  

(It’s important to understand 1 thing about husband right this second – he has nothing to do with planning the trips.  Nada naught nuzink!!!  Not because I’m  a control freak well I am but that’s not why  but because he doesn’t want to be bothered with the boring details of pfffft “planning”.  He just assumes minds will be read and perfect things will happen and he will live his life in a happy unicorn euphoria of blissful experiences.  My bad ultimately – because I know husband loves him a BEAR!!!!  Like love love loves bears so bad.  I should’ve used my psychic powers to know pandas would’ve been a MUST DO!!!  Bloody hell screams the planning fairies of the world)

Our guide and driver picked us up for an action packed day.  Well less action packed and more being chauffeurred around Beijing seeing must sees.

We started with Tiananmen Square which turned out to be a huge disappointment because it was closed to the public.  They were obviously setting up for some sort of upcoming event but it was a shame for us.

We were up at 5.30am which always seems so doable when you plan these trips months in advance but of course the reality is (when you are dying of swine flu) it can be a challenge in a real life setting.  But we did it because we were excited – today was going to be GREAT!!!

We scoffed a quick breakfast before our guide was to pick us up at 7am.  Most visitors to Beijing who go to visit The Great Wall go to the Badaling section of the wall because it is the closest to the city.  It is the most preserved part of the wall and the steps aren’t as steep and there are handrails etc.  However with all of that ‘convenience’ comes CROWDS!!!  Like cray-cray-bah-nay-nay crowds.  See Exhibit A below

This morning we were to go to the Xian train station and board our fast train to Beijing.  I had bought our tickets online but there was no “print at home” option unfortunately so the tickets had to be collected from a specific counter at the train station.  The intructions were a little confusing and I was a little concerned about how this process would go given our limited Chinese.  I mentioned this to our tour guide Bryan Bai  yesterday who we had booked our private driver with.  Bryan organised for the driver to arrive early so that he could park at the station and come in and help us collect the tickets.  When we walked into the station all I could see was chaos.  The ticketing counters were packed with what can only be described as organised mayhem.  It was impossible to know which line to go into for pre purchased tickets since there didn’t appear to be any sort of “lining up, waiting your turn” type system.  For a rule follower like me this was an anxiety producing scene.  Thank goodness for the driver – he just pushed and shoved his way to the front of a counter with a “just hand me the tickets and noone get’s hurt” attitude!  Forget Superman, Batman and Thor….this guy was my super hero.  Without his help we literally would not have been able to collect the tickets so I’m super duper grateful.