We understood a couple of days later what was the cause of our discomfort... The arrival in Beijing was great. The shuttle bus was there waiting for us and it took us directly to the hotel. At 7am the temperature was already 30 degrees and the rooms were not ready so we decided to go and have a look at Tien An Men Square where 2 million people (more or less) were already there visiting that immense and suggestive place. 
Sweating and puffing we arrived underneath the huge portrait of Mao and we started to get a feeling of what our 3 days in Beijing were going to be. People coming to us and asking if they could take a picture with us! We couldn’t make more than 3 steps and someone else was making the same request. We felt for a minute like we were movie stars! The following day the trip to the Great Wall of China where we did something no one ever dared to do before. Not knowing that it is forbidden to hang anything on the walls of one of the most important monuments in the world, we hung the Inter Club Sydney banner and took several pictures. If a policeman or a guard would have seen that, we would be probably still in China waiting for the court hearing but luckily nothing happened. Back to the hotel after the tour and we were ready for the stadium. The Bird’s Nest was waiting for us and we couldn’t wait to be inside. Dressed for the occasion, with the Inter jersey and everything we had the best time ever once again with the Chinese approaching us and asking if we could pose with them for a picture. Some of us have been in a stadium several times but we don’t think that ever received such a warm welcome! We felt we’re about to go into the dressing room and then on the pitch but reality is a bit different so we just walked inside the stadium and finally hung for the first time our banner!  The atmosphere inside the Bird’s Nest was great. 70,000 people, the majority of them Chinese, cheering and supporting 2 Italian teams. The most impressive thing was that most of them knew more about Italian soccer than some people we know here in Sydney. What happened next everyone knows. We played better, had more chances, create more occasions to score but they won. This is the destiny of being an Inter supporter, you’re so sure about winning a game, you know is going to be a great day and then all of a sudden something happen and the nightmare begins. Fortunately years of disappointments created strong armor and also this time we could somatise the side effects of the defeat. The return home wasn’t so exciting as the first part of the trip. Surely there was 1 person smiling and 9 quite upset, but the sadness for the defeat was definitively sweetened by the amazing weekend spent in Beijing. In name of the Inter Club Sydney we would like to thank once again the people who came to China and contributed to the success of this memorable trip: Amedeo Banzato, Sebastiano Laurenzi, Leonardo Mancini, Antonio Pantalone, Gianluca Piacenza, Giuseppe Querin and Roberto Stevanoni.

A special thank to our friend from Perth Sandro Brignoli who joined us in China. A thank “but you should have stayed home” to the Lazio supporter Claudio Pasqualucci and last but not least a well done to Alessandro Maremonti and Loris Armellini, secretary and treasurer of the Club, for organizing the trip and keeping the troop together while away!ICS_in_Cina_files/ICS%20in%20Cina%20-%20La%20Fiamma.pdf