When we first arrived in Beijing, I really didn't know what to expect from China, but I was really excited about the opportunity I had been given.  It's not too often you get the chance to spend ten days in another part of the world that has a very different style of living, with everything already organised with a full schedule, and I could tell that my eight teammates were also very excited.

The trip has been action packed.  We've been travelling with some great company such as Ron Barassi and Max Walker.  Both are obviously legends of sport, and it's been awesome hearing some of their stories and learning as much as possible from them.  There are a group of delegates travelling with us as well for business purposes, and it's been great getting to know them and finding out what they do for business.

Some of the places we've seen have been mind-boggling - The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, the markets, the gardens, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Suzhou, Jing Jin City, the Temple of Heaven, the Olympic facilities, the Chinese football clinics, the schools, and the museums.

I've learnt that in China, the colour 'red' is regarded as a lucky colour, which meant with my bright red hair, maybe I'm lucky.  Obviously the Chinese agreed with me, as I've had numerous requests for my photo, and others wanted to touch my hair.

The Chinese food has been amazing, if not a bit overwhelming.  Every lunch and dinner is a banquet with about 15 courses.  We were told that it is a sign of respect to go up to someone who you are dining with and say the word 'gumbai' and then drink some rice wine with them.  New Football Manager, Chris Connolly enjoyed a couple of rice wines more than I did.

So far, I have realised that China is a country of proud history when visiting some of the sites that I mentioned earlier.  It is such a different culture here.  With 1.3 billion people, this place makes Melbourne and Australia seem tiny.  We've been promoting AFL football throughout the trip, holding clinics, going to functions, and having plenty of Chinese media coverage along the journey.  It's been amazing to see how enthusiastic the kids are at the clinics and how much they want to learn about our game.