And away we go.

My “day” started at 12:05am on Boxing Day. Before leaving home, I took a quick photo of myself in my Walter Mitty inspired sweater, fighting back an excited smile. Little did I know that my life would soon change. For the next three and a half weeks, my days would be filled with adventure. I would find myself laughing, crying, and overeating. At points I would be filled with awe, and at points I would find myself nearly unable to leave the hotel room. Little did I know that this day would begin a new life filled with incredible experiences.

I took off from Vancouver and spent nearly 15 hours in the air before landing for a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong. Here, I would fill my stomach with dim sum and roast goose.

Duddell’s is a Michelin starred dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong, and they have an airport location. This place was surely just steaming frozen stuff. I’m not the biggest fan of steamed pork buns, (I like baked ones better) but the one I ate was so fluffy it actually surprised me. I managed to capture that surprise on camera.

I also had my first roast goose. Absolutely delicious. At this point I’d had 3 Hong Kong milk teas, and I’m sure that the only reason I was able to function was because my blood was at least 30% milk tea.

After nearly comatose from all the food, I took off and landed in Beijing where it took me about an hour and a half to get through immigration. I as able to get the 240-hour visa exception, and I made my way out of the airport. Immediately I struggled to get through a gate to get to the subway to take me into the city. I stared at a giant poster filled with instructions in Mandarin explaining what to do in the WeChat app to get a ticket. I had the WeChat app, but nothing seemed to be working as the pictures instructed me. Everyone around me spoke Mandarin. I couldn’t rely on tourist to help me here. Luckily I had spent some time during Covid to learn a little Mandarin, so I approached a very official looking man in a black fur hat with a small red star on it. “I need help. How do I go?” I said in broken Mandarin. The man instructed me to just tap my credit card on the gate (much like the Skytrain in Vancouver). I stood on the train after 23.5 hours of traveling and watched the soviet era city rush past me. Various treed areas went by with all the trees in precise rows.

I managed to navigate the subway all the way to my hotel. When I arrived it was still decorated for Christmas. My room was so absurdly fancy looking that I can’t help but laugh at the fact I’m backpacking. I would literally wearing the same thing every day in Beijing because I didn’t want to pack multiple days of cold weather clothes for only 4 nights there.

I was told to go eat at Siji Minfu to get Peking duck by a friend back home, and when I arrived there was a 4 hour wait. I decided to skip it and walk to a night market about a half hour away. I got the biggest (although deceivingly packaged) soup dumpling ever, as well as zhajiangmian noodles. I definitely didn’t pick the best place to get them, so I didn’t take a picture.

I learned from my mistake and went to get something from some stall that others were lined up at, and just bought whatever they were selling. I managed to recognize the characters for “yogurt”, and it turned out to be really good. It was like a yogurt custard. So smooth and not too sweet. I had mistakenly bought something that I would get every day for the rest of my stay in Beijing.

I just kept walking down beautiful streets before stumbling across Houhai Bar Street. I stood out as a tourist somehow, and people kept coming up to me requesting I go to their bar. “Hey! I have good looking people! Come to my bar! It’s this way!” “Hey! Come to my bar! The drinks are good!”. I tried to politely ignore everyone before just googling which bar was a favorite.

I picked one, went inside, and ordered a drink. It was such a weird atmosphere. Performers singing k-pop, kids in scout uniforms sitting at tables, people smoking indoors, foam sticks that light up so people can move them to the music, and a random cat roaming around. Perfect way to stay up and fight jet lag.