At the lounge in Sydney after the shocking red eye special. Have not done one of these flights for years – for a good reason. Not having put too much thought into the planning of the trip resulted in lots of last minute things to get sorted. Also as I decided to take my own bike – there was a bit of stuff to work out how this would flow. Having set the date by booking flights it forces the rest to happen. I’m sure I could have spent months researching and planning the trip – but as I only had a couple of weeks then that’s how much time I took. it was all pretty much ‘just in time’ stuff: Visa, accomodation, getting to the Great Wall, packing the bike, doing some quick research on what to expect, and then getting the bits and bobs to handle it. Some interesting info I came across. The pollution is so bad in China that they estimate that it kills about 4000 people every DAY! Crazy. Also the people that die in road accidents is around 550 per day. Quite ironic that if the car does not get you directly it will get you eventually due to the smog it contributes to. My attempt to manage these 2 things – face mask – lots of stuff when riding that makes you stand out. My daughter, Tess, shared some interesting info as well. If a driver hits someone – they are responsible for their medical bills for life if they survive. So what happens – a lot – is the driver will get out to check if the person is alive – get back in their car and drive over the injured person multiple times to ensure they are dead. This has been captured on video footage many many times. They then just wait for the police. So the big tip here is do not get run over! Will be interesting to see how the reality lines up with the stories.