Never having left Europe before, the prospect of a nine-hour flight direct from Amsterdam to Beijing was exciting. Technically the day started on the 12th of August, the day before the flight, since the amount of sleep I got the night before was (understandably) negligible. We drove to Heathrow at one in the morning to arrive for 3am. Upon arrival my family employed the drop-and-run approach (at my request) and I was left to check in with the others.

The first hop to Amsterdam was so short there was barely time to register the fact that we were in the air before we landed. I didn’t particularly mind that, as taking off and landing were the most fun parts of the flight anyway. Once off the plane I quickly logged onto the free airport wifi to check UCAS for results. Edinburgh confirmed that I’d secured a place for deferred entry which was a relief (I now knew I’d done at least as well as my offer), although I had to wait another few hours for my family to collect my results from the school and scan them to me.  Most of the 13th was spent sitting by the gate for our flight (in my case) tinkering with my website.

Long haul flights were surprisingly comfortable for the first few hours. I enjoyed the screens behind the seats with the film collections and flight path map which kept updating itself, but by the second film I was starting to see the downsides of having only a small aisle to walk down. Sleeping is also impossible in the cramped conditions and (unlike a train) I didn’t seem to get lulled to sleep by the movement of a plane. Weirdly I rather enjoyed plane food, so no complaints there.

By the time we stepped off the plane I’d completely lost track of things like time or day so it was only a small surprise to find out that it was 6.30AM on the 14th. Actually, it was quite a surprise given how hot and muggy it was! Particularly since I was dressed in multiple layers and jeans for British night time weather… Getting in was interesting – there were two lines: ‘Chinese Citizens’ and ‘Foreigners’. I think that’s just part of the general attitude towards people from other countries.

We met Mike without any problems and set off for the hotel. It took them ages to photocopy everyone’s passport but we didn’t have long before Mike took us off by subway to Tiananmen Square. We finished the day with a banquet, though attendance was relatively low due to people having fallen asleep. All in all, by my best guess I was up for between 50 and 60 hours with very little sleep (it’s hard to judge because of the change in time zone).

—TJC

Featured image: milling about just off the Schippol–Beijing flight.