Today confirmed for us that flying internationally is a special kind of awfulness. Long waits in queues, uncomfortable economy seats and lack of sleep- just a normal day. But it does feel worth it now that we are finally here.

I rang Matt to let him know we had arrived. We had a rather nice taxi driver coming in from the airport, Stephen and he talked using his smattering of English and Stephen’s first ventures in speaking Chinese here. He’s much braver than me.

I’m not sure why WordPress is working tonight, but it is another nice thing that has happened. Our hotel is a short walk from the main train station, but our agent said we had to go to the other one to pick up our tickets for tomorrow. The receptionist suggested we try this station first and it worked.

So, being very tired we were grateful that it was so relatively easy. We had dinner at a rather grand restaurant here at the hotel. The meal was simple and not expensive and we were the only guests.

We bought a little pack of milk to go with tea bags brought from home for my cuppa in the morning. We also brought herbal tea bags with us and a little pack of Oreos from the shop meant we could enjoy a very nice supper.

I think we will sleep well. Our train leaves at 10.00 am tomorrow, but we are supposed to get there an hour early, which means we will have to get up early to get there. Unfortunately is the further station where we catch our train to Qufu. My brain isn’t working very well tonight.