Mike promised us a ‘Project Trust’ style welcome to Beijing and, well, we weren’t disappointed. Having taken the subway to Tiananmen Square, he told two members of our group the name of our destination and the time we needed to be there, then said, ‘It’s about 20 minutes’ walk that way,’ with a gesture, and disappeared. Being the resourceful bunch we are (given we lacked Wifi or mobile Internet) we scoured the map which one person had thought to bring.

At this point I will deviate slightly from the thrilling narrative to tell you a bit about Tiananmen. It certainly makes for an impressive spectacle, being ringed by a grand museum building on one side, impressive government buildings on another and the Gate of Heavenly Peace (leading to the Forbidden City) to the North. The square was in preparation for a military parade to celebrate victory in the ‘War Against Fascism’ (WWII), which meant the construction of two large ‘Great Wall’ monuments. Though impressive, the green turf for the base reminded me of children’s adventure playgrounds.

Back to our challenge, we headed off as a group in the general direction Mike had indicated. Fuchingmen successfully found on the map, we headed off. I passed Mike going in the opposite direction at one point, but since I was going the wrong way (and quickly came back) I thought nothing of it at the time.

Thirty to forty minutes of walking later, we were starting to wonder if we hadn’t got the wrong place. Mike had described a subway stop (entrance D) and yet we couldn’t seem to find one. Unfortunately, spoken Chinese is difficult for beginners in the language to transcribe into Pinyin. We realised Fuchingmen was actually Fuxingmen (very similar pronunciation), which was a good 40 minutes away from where we currently were. Oops.

In the end we were only half an hour late to the meeting with the CEAIE, and frayed tempers were quickly forgotten in the sleepy haze which descended over us during the ensuing lecture (in fairness, we’d just been walking for at least an hour following little-to-no sleep on the flight).

—TJC

Featured image: outside the government building off Tiananmen Square.