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To be honest I don’t know where to start with this story and I really don’t know how long it will take to tell.

So, I’ve just come off the phone with Marie from my 17^th floor bedroom with a panoramic view in the middle of Beijing at the Shangri-La Hotel. What I’ve decided the best thing to do is to ask Marie to filter and edit the emotional explosions of a mad man, in the way that she usually does but with 100 times more information.

The best way I can describe it at the moment is that I’m like a sponge that’s been left in water for too long and when you pick it up the water spews out, but it will continue to spew out time and time again. You can squeeze it almost indefinitely and stuff will come.

That’s how my head feels, and it’s definitely how my heart feels. It will take some time to process this.

It started last year (the best things are always long in the planning). I was approached by Richard Bodimeade who is in charge of marketing at Geistlich UK to see if I was interested in travelling to China to give a lecture in a city called Qingdao which would be on the 13^th October 2018. They would be able to fly me in on the Friday and fly me back out on the Sunday. I might even be able to work Monday afternoon!!

My ego wanted to go immediately but I knew it would take some discussions and convincing at home to take the time away from the family because there was no way I was going to go over a weekend to China.

I asked Geistlich if there was any opportunity to do more while I was there and they said I could pretty much do as much as I wanted!!

We settled on three lectures on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All the same content and three hours long 9am – 12pm. One would be in the city of Wuhan, the second in Hangzhou and the third in Qingdao. The way the schedule panned out I would fly into Shanghai on the Tuesday, arriving late that evening.

I would fly out of Beijing very early the next Monday morning.

During that time I would see five Chinese cities in five days and seven cities in seven days in total.

I would take four international flights and four internal Chinese flights.

I would check out of five hotels.

I would travel Business Class on the Emirates (my first ever time in Business Class on any plane) and First Class on Emirates too.

I would travel around the Bird’s Nest Stadium and the water cube in Beijing in a Tesla.

During my time in China I would make some great new friends and face some of the greatest challenges in teaching and travel I have ever known.

I have experienced terrible loneliness and awful homesickness and then immediately after be dazzled by sights that I could not even imagine.

‘I see everything, that is my curse’

I have quoted this before from the Sherlock Homes movie and it does apply to me, but even with my crazy head I simply couldn’t take it in.

As I sit here in the hotel it’s Sunday afternoon at 3pm. I’m free now for 12 hours before I get up and climb into the First Class seat of the Emirates A380 from Beijing to Dubai.

Over the blogs to come, in an unspecified amount (that will be decided by Marie and not me because you need someone reasonable to filter this information and I’m not qualified!) I will tell you some stories about things I've learned which I hope might apply to you and help you on your way, an experience shared and all that…

But one story to explain the title of the blog.

It’s Wednesday night in Wuhan, about 9pm. We arrived in the city about two and a half hours ago into one of the biggest airports I have ever seen (since I was in Shanghai yesterday and Dubai the day before)

I have spent an hour with the interpreter explaining my presentation and then Zhaoyi Li or Ksly (his English name – everyone in China has an English name) has asked me if I want to go out for some traditional Chinese food.

I say “yes” because I’m here to see things so off we trot for hot pod.

Hot pod is a delicacy, particularly towards the South and people love it.

Imagine fondue, only a much, much bigger bowl made of stainless steel and divided into two compartments. One compartment contains oil laced with chillies and other ‘spicy’ spices and the other is more benign.

A menu comes out (obviously entirely in Mandarin) and a pencil and you tick what you want. Ksly (but let’s just call him K from now on) looks up at me and says “do you eat goose intestines?”

………..?

WTF!!!

Welcome to China.

Read on for the rest of the blogs because I’ll finish that meal story later but it gives you some sense of where things are going to go and the rollercoaster ride.

Blog Post Number: 1799