Even before I arrived in China there was a noticeable difference. My cheap trip on Air China was not as bad as I feared.

In the past my experiences with Air China have ranged from the painful to the eccentric. This time the trip was professional and as comfortable as any budget cattle class airline I have been on. While not quite up to the standards some of my colleagues suffered flying business class with Air New Zealand, it was noticeable that Air China has really lifted its game since joining the Star Alliance. The new terminal in Beijing is a very impressive piece of architecture, and so was the fact that my bags arrived and clearing border controls was a breeze.

I spent my first day talking to some locals, interviewing New Zealand business people and diplomats.

My hotel – the Taiwan Hotel – was full of half-drunk Taiwanese businessmen and holiday makers, but it was comfortable enough and the broadband was free, fast and worked a breeze.

The second day I locked myself away and wrote for more than twelve hours. The material was sent through as backgrounders, news and features on various aspects of China-New Zealand relations, trade and human interest. The package was described as comprehensive by some and exhausting by others.

One interesting aside is that I did one story on Internet censorship in China. I searched various sites on topics that were sensitive to the Chinese and wrote a report about what I could find and what was blocked. The next day it was impossible to get access to the Internet via that laptop, despite the hotel assuring me all was well. Luckily I had taken two laptops – due to my deep paranoia about equipment failure while overseas – and strangely enough, when I plugged in the second one, it worked fine. Which makes me suspect that the Chinese do have the ability to block the IP addresses of computers seeking censored material, though of course it could be a coincidence.

 
The third day was dominated by embargoed briefings on the contents of the trade deal and seeking reaction from business people to them, followed up, of course, by hours of writing up the material under embargo for the next day. I was stunned by the sweeping and comprehensive nature of the deal. Part of this, I believe strongly, was due to China's desire to put a line in the sand and say to other countries, “We can do business with you, if you go as far as New Zealand”.

I think it is probably one of the first tangible benefits – in terms of trade negotiations – New Zealand can claim from the experiment of unilaterally cutting trade barriers ahead of other countries.

Day four was the ceremony itself. The Great Hall of the People was as grand as ever and it was interesting to see New Zealand flags fluttering around Tiananmen Square. As with these events there was much hanging around and filing of colour pieces.

 
There was one amusing moment, when the journalists had to scramble from one side of the hall to the other at the same time as bayonet-wielding soldiers marched in to parade. They would not swerve from their path and a few of us were sent clattering behind the vases.

Day five was covering the follow-up business seminars and tagging along with the prime minister to various events and functions. Day six was wash up day – most of which was spent hanging around the New Zealand embassy in Beijing to get Helen Clark's reaction to her Foreign Minister and New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters rejecting the deal.

As ever I and NZPA remain thankful for the assistance.

Ian Llewellyn was among journalists supported by Asia:NZ to travel to Beijing and report on the official signing of the China-New Zealand FTA.