Dates: 14-28 March 2018.

There are some countries that have always been on my list of places to visit. 2018 initially presented one such county, Russia, but then presented another, China.

Following the successes at Euro 2016 there was a real hope that Cymru would qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. However, the FAW accepted an invite to the China Cup which would take place in March, prior to the World Cup, and suddenly I had something to spend my “World Cup money” on.

The China Cup was to take place in the hitherto unknown city of Nánníng, near (relatively speaking) the Vietnam border. Clearly I couldn’t travel all that way just for two football matches so I planned the following itinerary:

• four nights in Beijing
• two nights in Shanghai
• two nights in Nánníng
• one night in Hong Kong
• one night in Macau
• two nights back in Nánníng

The trip would require a Chinese visa, £120 for a multi-entry, two-year visa via a mountain of paperwork printed-out after filling in online.

At 04.00 on Wednesday the 14th of March I caught the T9 bus from Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Airport. A quick hop to Amsterdam was then followed by an Aeroflot flight to Moscow. Yes, I know, the irony. I would make it to Russia in 2018 after all, but only to take in the delights of Sheremetyevo Airport. When I set foot on Chinese soil it was 09.30 on Thursday the 15th.

I always get nervous when landing in a new country. I want to try the local lingo, but I don’t want to sound like an idiot. Plus, this time, I had to fill out a landing card and hope my visa was kosha. I mean, why wouldn’t it be?

The train and metro to my first accommodation was straightforward and day one was spent getting my bearings and fighting the urge to sleep in order to beat the jet lag. It also didn’t take long to be asked for a selfie! I’d heard that white Westerners are considered photo-worthy by the natives and whilst taking in Tiananmen Square I was politely asked (read: “charades”) by a man to pose between his two female companions, presumably his wife and sister?

Sadly, Tiananmen Square was closed-off and surrounded by security checkpoints, so a long range photo was all I could manage.

Tiananmen Square:

One thing I was looking forward to was the street food, and it didn’t take long to find Wangfujing Street which was near my accommodation and the Forbidden City. I wasn’t brave enough to try baby octopus or skewers of insects thus there are no pictures of such. Vendors were pretty quick to cover their wares with polite notices that photography wasn’t permitted without purchase!

Day two was all about the Great Wall. My guidebook was new but somethings had changed. The station from where I was to catch the train to the most accessible section of the wall (Badaling, 38 miles north of Beijing) was a right pain to get to. I exited the nearest metro station and proceeded to negotiate raised walkways and perilous multi-lane roads. Unfortunately, the station no longer served the S2 line to Badaling!

Polite notice:

An hour behind (my own made-up) schedule, I headed to Huangtudian station, and bought a single ticket for ¥6 (about 70 pence). One valuable time-saving lesson I learned at the ticket booth was that the Chinese don’t do return tickets…

The journey was slow (just under hour if memory serves) but comfortable and occasionally parts of the Great Wall could be spotted high up in the mountains. The “entrance” to the wall is a short walk from the Badaling station and a ticket can be bought with minimal fuss.

After being ripped-off to the tune of ¥40 (about £4.60) for a coffee (my own fault for not paying attention), the next thing I know I’m actually on the Great Wall! It wasn’t too busy and the day was crisp, cold and bright. This is where pictures will do a better job than words:

The Great Wall:

The inevitable selfie request from some brave natives:

The three or four hours I spent there were brilliant. The enormity of the wall, the amazing panorama over the adjacent landscape, and near the end when there was barely another soul about, the peacefulness. At one point I just leaned on a section of the wall for about ten minutes just soaking it all up.

For a short video click here.

The journey back left me feeling contemplative, but that could have just been the very spicy Chinese pot-noodle-type snack that I’d insisted on trying…

Despite the weather I’d decided to visit the Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum, on day three. It once served as the imperial palace for emperors during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 – 1911). In those times it was forbidden to enter without special permission of the emperor, hence its name.

Queuing in the snow for over an hour wasn’t a great start but what lay beyond the outer walls was enormous, spectacular and worth the wait:

My final day in Beijing was a bit of everything. I took a look at the Drum Tower and Bell Tower that sit facing each other, with a pleasant square taking centre stage. I also took to just wandering and taking pictures on what was a sunny day. This is one of my favourite pictures from that day:

To round things off I investigated the Temple of Heaven Park at dusk which was both beautiful and eerie:

I love watching old people play board games in public, there’s just something so life-affirming about the act:

Some very tuneful Beijing birds here.

That last evening I ate at the most celebrated Peking Duck restaurant in town. Noted for its expense and exclusivity according to the guidebook. The duck was indeed the best I’d had and was indeed expensive. Sadly, the craft ale place I’d found online no longer existed, well, after searching numerous side-streets for 45 minutes near the supposed address, that’s the conclusion I came too!

Withdrawing cash was always a tricky task throughout the trip due to Chinese banks mainly partnering with WorldPay rather than Visa or Mastercard. It was very much a case of finding an acceptable ATM and then marking it on my map for reference!

What struck me about Beijing was that it felt very different from anywhere I’d ever been before. It felt Chinese. Distinct. Low-rise. Grand buildings. Probably sounds daft, but Shanghai was very different…

Onto Shanghai, but before that the joy of domestic Chinese flights. I got to the airport in plenty of time, which was a happy accident. First off, at check-in, I put the cat among the pigeons by having a lithium-ion battery in my case. That’s not allowed in China it seems. I expected to get my case back in order to move the offending item to my hand luggage. Nope. Instead I was encouraged to clamber beyond the check-in desk, haul my case off the stationary belt, and fish out my battery – all whilst the check-in guy got on with other customers! An interesting approach to airport security…

Talking of security, everywhere else I’ve been male security personnel pat-down males and female security personnel pat-down females. Again, not in China. However, unlike the check-in desk fiasco, the pat-down by a cute and handsy Chinese girl whilst I stood shoe-less on a soapbox really brightened my mood!

The Shanghai weather was pretty miserable and it did its best to take the shine off a city that immediately felt very European in nature.  Nevertheless, I explored The Bund and the French Concession areas on the first day. The Bund was fascinating with the old colonial buildings and architecture on one side of the Huangpu River and the colossal 21st century skyscrapers on the other. The old world meets the new world.

Even though the weather and the resultant visibility didn’t lend itself to going up the Shanghai Tower I wasn’t going to pass-up the chance to see the world from over half a kilometre up:

For a video of the lift speed click here.

What happened a few times whilst wandering around was youngish females approaching me to chat and to practice their English, often suggesting we go for a drink to carry on the conversation. It was very curious as they often appeared bored rather than enthusiastic. Presumably it was a scam of some sort. However, as I waiting to board the ferry across the Huangpu a very sweet girl of about 30 tried her best to chat to me in very basic English. My attempts at Chinese weren’t a lot better and the whole situation was slightly comical. I’d obviously done something right though because she insisted I take down about four phone numbers!

There is a really cool area of the French Concession that is a mazy of little alleyways with shops, bars and restaurants every which way. I must have walked around for an hour happily getting lost and seeing the same place time-after-time. After eating I found a little bar and pulled up a stool. I ended up chatting with some Belgians who, like me, had been drawn in by the interesting array of beers on offer. They moved on not long after I mentioned Euro 2016 though…

Indeed:

I doubt Nánníng is on many people’s bucket list but since the China Cup was being held there it now holds a special place in the hearts of about 500 Cymru fans. More airport fun. This time, despite arriving with swathes of time I still contrived to be last on the bus to the plane. I found myself jogging towards a handful of panicking beckoning officials. I swear I spent more time on that little white bus than I spent actually in the air to Nánníng.

Ah, and what a flight! People who know me know that I am not a fan of children and I loath the sound of screaming kids. Where was my seat? Slap-bang in the middle of two families with enough kids to start a five-a-side team.

However, it turned out to be the nicest flight I’ve ever taken. Being clearly Western on a plane full of non-Westerners I was immediately the focus of all the attention. I must have said “nǐ hǎo” (hello in Mandarin) a hundred times. The one young lad across the aisle showed-off his counting skills in English to the obvious pride of his mother. He and his sister then tried teaching me 1-10 in Chinese, much to the hilarity of the scores of people around us who had begun to tune-in to what was going on. I showed them my copy of the China Cup booklet but the young lad was more interested in translating random objects into English and then having me repeat the Chinese equivalent.

Once we’d landed the parents began gesturing for the inevitable photographs to be taken and I was more than happy to oblige. I have to smile at the thought of these people going home and telling family and friends about the day their kids practiced their English with a Westerner on their plane journey home! My only regret was not getting a photo of the two families. Something I need to be less hesitant about in the future.

The accommodation in Nánníng was an interesting affair. It took ages to find the complex of apartments and when I did I had the fun of trying to explain to the cleaner/maid, and presumably her son, that I had booked an apartment. Of course she knew no English so Google Translate came to the rescue, sort of, while some old geezer chuckled away at our ridiculous attempts at a conversation.

The apartment was rough around the edges to say the least (see here). Exposed wires, tiling work that even I would have been embarrassed about, and a split-level area that sounded like it was one heavy object away from collapsing. Still, it was 16 quid a night. Needless to say I cancelled my second stay here in favour of a hotel near the airport bus stop.

Unsurprisingly, Nánníng, more than anywhere else was the place I received the highest amount of unsolicited waves, smiles and hellos from the locals. I never tired of it in truth.

Whenever I mention Nánníng to people I tell them it’s China’s answer to Swindon. That’s probably really harsh on Nánníng as the place was actually quite beautiful with plenty of green areas.

A random scene that made me smile:

The opening match of the China Cup was great fun. China were very naïve and our lads ripped them apart to the tune of six goals to nil with each of Bale’s goals being cheered just as enthusiastically by the locals as by us.

Guangxi Sports Centre:

Me and Big Rob become local celebs for the evening:

Prior to KO, the Chinese Nation Anthem, probably.

Next up was the short trip to Hong Kong. There was no flight from Nánníng to HK but there was one to nearby Shenzhen which entailed getting a metro from the airport to Shenzhen Bay Port. After passing through customs it was a bus over the 1km-long Shenzhen Bay Bridge to Hong Kong.

I didn’t really like Hong Kong. Mainly because of my own shortcomings. My phone’s GPS told me I was near my hotel so I jumped off the bus and proceeded to wander around Hong Kong Island like an idiot for an hour or so. A mixture of asking some staff in a hotel and my GPS finally behaving eventually lead me to my hotel…which was about two miles away! On the plus side it was easily the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in. It came with a mobile phone and USB sockets in the wall. The view from 20-odd floors up wasn’t bad either.

It was just so busy. The queue for the train to the peak of Victoria Park was a mile long so I gave up. Probably should have got a taxi up in hindsight. Then there were the roads. Fenced-off, presumably for safety purposes, but maddening should you take the wrong crossing. There just seemed no easy way back you where you came from.

My favourite part was catching the ferry from Hong Kong Island to mainland Hong Kong at night with both sides of  Victoria Harbour lit up. Very relaxing.

Looking back at Hong Kong Island from the ferry:

Macau on the other hand was a little delight. The ferry from Hong Kong to Macau was a simple two and half hour trip. Macau was the perfect antithesis to Hong Kong. Low-rise, spacious (relatively speaking) and chilled. Sure, there were huge casinos and tall buildings but it seemed a world away from Hong Kong.

Looking southward from the northern tip of the southern islet:

Talking of casinos, I was hoping to have a few hands of Blackjack so I nipped into the most obvious one available, the Grand Lisboa. Google it – I couldn’t get a decent shot of the place due to its size…

The ground floor was the domain of the slot machine and all things modern. The tables were upstairs. Despite being dressed inappropriately for such a grand place it didn’t stop two hookers from asking me if I was looking for some fun as I jumped onto the escalator – most disconcerting!

Sadly, when I found the Blackjack tables I couldn’t even play a single hand. The minimum stake was roughly £28 (£26 more than my local Grosvenor!) and I didn’t have that sort of liquidity on me…

As I only stayed the one night, the day after I dropped my case off at the charming Aeroporto Internacional De Macau and headed south towards Coloane Village on a local bus. It’s a beautiful old fishing village that’s green and peaceful and, depending on which way you face, offers views of the South China Sea or just plain old mainland China.

Heading back for some local fish for a late lunch involved a bit of ducking and diving through little alleyways lined with houses, shops and eateries:

I was a sad to leave Macau but the final of the China Cup beckoned so it was time to head back to Swindon, err, I mean Nánníng. After opting not to go back to the dubious apartment from my first visit I’d instead booked into the grand-sounding Vienna International Hotel.

It was conveniently located next to airport shuttle bus stop and had a great view…:

Cup final day, and I was woken up by all manner of shouting, balling and singing. On leaving my room there were two sheepish looking girls eating noodles at a table outside my door. Further down the hall and it soon became apparent there was some sort of TV show rehearsal going on. A Chinese version of X-Factor perhaps? Utterly bizarre…

As for the final itself, we battled gamely with Uruguay and perhaps should have taken the lead just before the break, but it wasn’t to be as every outfield player in the squad got some pitch time.

A few of us then headed back to Nanning’s (now) famous street food street to eat, drink and generally celebrate a most unusual #WalesAway trip. One of our number, Dilwyn, was challenged by a local to see who could down a half litre bottle of beer the quickest. The local lost by a considerable margin!

We ate a lot of these (spicy, I wanna say, chicken?):

And we met a lot of these:

This last picture perfectly sums-up my experience of China and the Chinese people: friendly, curious and enthusiastic. Nothing beats Euro 2016, but this trips comes a very close second.