Starting my journey to Turkey.

It was my first time at Beijing Capital International Airport, where I took an Air China flight to Istanbul, Turkey. The flight took 11 hours, and Istanbul is 5 hours behind Beijing. Istanbul has a long history. It was founded in 668 BC and was a city-state of ancient Greece called Byzantium. It later became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople in 330 AD. In 1453, it became the capital of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. After the capital was moved to Karachi, Istanbul remained an important city for Turkey's economy and culture. The current capital of Turkey is Ankara. The country has a total area of 783,600 square kilometers and a population of 85.37 million (2023). More than 80% of the population is Turkish, and about 15% is Kurdish. The country is divided into 81 provinces. The official language is Turkish, the main religion is Islam (Sunni), and the currency is the new Turkish lira. We used a visa on arrival. It was 8:00 in the morning in Istanbul, Turkey (13:00 Beijing time). It took more than an hour to get from the airport to the city by tourist bus, and there was a bit of traffic on the way. In the city, you can see that the entire city is built in a hilly area, with houses of varying heights. The streets and houses in the old city are a bit old.