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In September 2018, I landed in Beijing after a long and exhausting flight. The taxi drivers kept calling and scrambling for me but I was not looking to get duped on my first day. I took the bus instead and ended up in the city centre where I checked into a hostel. I was going to be there for the next four days. Beijing was different. Transport and food was quite expensive in the city centre but my years of decent economic skills served me well. However, I was truly surprised that people were extremely aware of my presence there. I am not sure if this was a good or bad thing. There was always somebody staring or taking a picture of me everywhere I went. Was this not a metropolitan city? There were so many foreigners in every street but I somehow stood out like a sore thumb. My introverted self was starting to feel uneasy but I met a lovely friend who calmed my beating heart. He was from Chengdu and was only visiting for a short while. I felt relieved because he was able to successfully teach me some basic everyday Chinese words and show me all the cool things around the city. Hmm, forbidden city you ask? Unfortunately, by cool things I mean restaurants and shopping malls. Though I gladly discovered two locations in the outskirts of Beijing while consulting my best friend, Google maps. I particularly visited Yancun and Changyang in Fangshan District. In order to get to these locations, I had to take three trains that had about six to eleven stops each. The first destination was Yancun. My train journey was honestly not comfortable because I had to deal with the unavoidable pictures and videos of myself being taken without consent. I wondered what that content would be used for? Was I going to become weibo famous? Oh! By the way, I found out that weibo was China’s instagram and facebook during my trip. I was interested to know what the hype was about but it was all in vain. Everything was in Chinese but I guess one can always translate. On the bright side, I am now learning Chinese to help me read and understand without needing to translate every single thing in the near future. To tell you the truth, I still wonder if I actually ended up on weibo or was I just another memorable picture in someone’s gallery. All the same, I arrived in Yancun safe and sound. I was surprised to see a number of Africans living there. It was a close knit neighbourhood that seemed very welcoming as I pleasantly met a friend from Ghana, who took me to a nice restaurant that sold the tastiest beef noodle soup I ever had in China. Alright, it was the only beef noodle soup I had since I arrived in China but the key point here is that it was delicious. We also had some Chinese hotpot to the point where I felt like I was living the Chinese dream. The next destination was Changyang. It was only 30 minutes away from Yancun. There was not much to see there, although It was more developed than Yancun with a wider variety of restaurants and fast food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC. I unfortunately did not make any friends in this location so I settled for a lonely McDonald’s. It felt just like the city centre with plenty of pictures and videos of me as a muse for every child in town. Even though I did not get to visit the historical sites that are significant in the Chinese culture, it was a pleasure to have had a warm experience in Fangshan district where I enjoyed great company and tasty cuisines. The two wonderful people I met have now turned out to be my lifelong friends. I hope to go back to China one day so I can finally get to see the beautiful historical sites and sceneries, and reunite with my friends. Maybe this time there is a possibility of me becoming weibo famous too.