From China With Love.

Yeah! We made it to Tianjin! After a 25 hour boat trip, we are sitting safe and sound in the comfort of the Marriot Hotel in downtown Tianjin.

The journey was as smooth as a baby’s bum, the only slight hiccup occurred as we were leaving Korea. I’ve only been pulled into that little room on the side of the immigration gate once, and it was a horrible experience. Everyone looks at you like you are a criminal and the room is always hot and sweaty (to make you ‘confess’, no doubt). We had overstayed our visa by five days. The frustrating thing was that we had preempted the problem and had someone call the immigration office to ask them what we should do. They said we could stay in Korea for two weeks. They said they didn’t need to see our passports, and that it was fine that we were leaving five days after the expiration of our visa.

We had, surprisingly, been given false information. That said, it wasn’t a massive problem; the boat was just delayed for five hours, and we both have sore bottoms! They just changed our visa status and told us to be more careful next time.

Apart from that, the boat was great. The cabin was nice, there were DVDs to rent, and the beer was only 50p a can. It didn’t feel like 25 hours. We arrived into Tianjin at 1pm today. It is the first day of Chinese New Year, so there were no buses and the streets were empty. A taxi driver brought us to the hotel, and I think the plan is the stay in tonight, and try to find out the best way to get to Beijing tomorrow.