It is rare during filming that we do absolutely everything in chronological order as it will appear on the final cut. A good example of this was when I ended up rock climbing in 32 degree heat for best part of 2 hours, and then having to deliver my opening introduction and act all excited about my imminent rock climbing experience.

Sweating my way up the steeper part of Mutianyu... that was  only the 3rd take

If you watch closely (can’t believe I’m actually highlighting this…) when I’m putting on the harness, not a rock climbing nappy as I call it, you’ll see my entire shirt is drenched in sweat from the exertions on the 2 climbing walls…. However I did love the rock-climbing though I must thank Houli, my director on this episode, for using the footage of me falling……

I’d also like to quickly mention that on our way to Trout Valley we stopped at a restaurant to enjoy some well earned lunch….To cut a long story short with filming wrapping up around 9pm, we headed back to Beijing and our respective homes or standard Saturday night activities. It turns out that for the next 3 days everyone from the crew was very sick due to the food consumed at lunch , except me…..I’d like to give a big thank you to the lovely person who happened to call me during lunch and made me miss the majority of the meal and therefore the majority of opportunities to poison myself!

Right one of the great themes within the 5th episode is food, and delicious food for me to enjoy describing to people for their viewing pleasure….can I say that that is the only thing I ended up doing. Through some funny twist of fate, we filmed the food scenes in the Summer Palace around 4pm when none of us had yet had a chance to have lunch….I’m being totally serious when I say that we weren’t allowed to touch any of the incredible delicacies on display. Absolute torture!

The CCTV tower experience was definitely a highlight for me, mostly because I was totally unaware of its capacity as a tourist spot. Well it is, and it’s definitely worth heading up there because the view of Beijing at 238 metres is fantastic.

Well I’m sure there were plenty more highlights for me during the trip but then again I don’t want to give everything away before you’ve even watched the show!

Editor:Liu Fang