Wednesday:

Well there we have it.

The historic tour of China has come to an end and Blues are back on home soil.

I'd be lying if I said the majority of the squad weren't glad to be back home. It was a tiring trip that felt more like a month than two weeks for Alex McLeish's men, but one that I'm sure they will feel the benefits from.

And the truth is that the ones that see themselves at the club come the end of the season will be back in that part of the world next summer.

The players arrived back at Heathrow at 1am on Wednesday morning, while us media types and members of backroom staff touched down around six hours later.

The final day in Guangzhou passed without any real incident - apart from a good ol' sing-sing between McLeish's squad.

In true pre-season fashion of old, the players spent the final night at their hotel testing out their vocal chords in front of their team-mates.

Each one was asked to step forward and belt out a song of their choice. There were some interesting choices (and sounds) too.

Michel opted for a patriotic, chest-thumping Spanish number, Ben Foster plucked for Beyonce's 'Halo' while young Scot Fraser Kerr kept it closer to home with The Proclaimers classic 'I'm Gonna Be ('500 miles)'.

If you want to hear which players made an impact on the pitch, rather than on their team-mates' ear drums, then watch the final episode of Blues View in China below, in which I chat to Colin Tattum about the trip as a whole.

On a separate note, this is my final blog posting for sundaymercury.net as I prepare to head on to pastures new having accepted a role with Birmingham City's media team.

Thanks for staying tuned to this blog along the way, the pleasure was all mine!

Over and out.....

Monday:

There's a spring in the players' steps as they know that home is drawing closer. This has been a tough and draining experience for the Blues squad, but one that will surely benefit them and the club in the long run.

Training takes place at the basic yet suitable Ying Tung Stadium on yet another extremely hot and humid day.

Throughout this trip, it's been interesting to note that there's a certain three players that attract more attention from the Chinese than the rest of the squad - Ben Foster, Nikola Zigic and Cameron Jerome (Of course, pronounced Jeremy).

After a quiet morning session, training in the afternoon attracts a decent crowd of journalists and locals (who are soon exposed to Roger Johnson's colourful language). And true to form, one Chinese photographer strolls over and asks for mine and and Blues TV man Chris Coles' opinion on Foster, Zigic and Jeremy, who? Oh yeah, Jerome.

Bizarrely, training is occasionally interrupted by the sound of the 'Happy Birthday' tune. Turns out that's the noise that the local road sweepers drive along to.

Sunday:

After a three-and-a-half hour flight from Shenyang, Blues arrive in the fourth and final destination of this pre-season tour.

Guangzhou (also known as either Canton or Panyu) is the destination and straight away it looks a more vibrant city that the rather grim Shenyang. It also appears to be the garden ornament capital of the world as showroom after showroom displays giant Buddhas, batmen and martians.

As there's no games left, there's been plenty of grumbling about the purpose of this stop off as many players would prefer to be on a plane home by now. Although two training sessions are due at the nearby Ying Tung Stadium, It appears that a dinner with local authorities on Monday night is the only real reason for being in Guangzhou.

With no training scheduled today, Liam Ridgewell decides to head into town with some of the club's backroom staff to do a bit of shopping. Wearing his sleeveless top, Ridge is a bit puzzled as to why he's getting so many strange looks from the locals.

His heavily tattooed arm explains everything. In China, tattoos are a sign of a bad man; a kind of gangster character.

So ink-covered Garry O'Connor must look like the Godfather out here.

Saturday:

It's the third and final match of Blues' China tour and the Shenyang Olympic Stadium is the venue.

Liaoning Hongyun are the opponents and they're backed by a vociferous hardcore known as the Red Tigers. There was a very patriotic feeling to this occasion; a China flag flew high at one end as each fan also proudly waved the People Republic's colours while blowing on mini trumpets.

Out of the three venues that Blues have played in on this tour, the Shenyang Olympic Stadium was certainly best geared for hosting football. However, that didn't stop the odd spelling mistake slipping in. While the scoreboard at the Bird's Nest in Beijing read: 'Brimingham', here the sign on the visitors' dugout and dressing room read: 'Birminghan'. There was also an ash tray next to the dugout and it was put to good use by Sammy Yu.

During the build-up, a three-minute video promoting Birmingham City played on a continuous loop over the big screen. There were shots of Birmingham City Centre and clips of Kevin Phillips, Lee Bowyer and Seb Larsson speaking in Chinese to the camera. For some reason they also showed footage of Sheffield Wednesday and QPR players celebrating.

Friday:

Blues are on to the third leg of this tour and it's the industrial city of Shenyang.

The journey from Beijing to Shenyang is by a four hour train journey, one that doesn't particularly please the players who are all crammed into the only first-class carriage. One member of the squad grumbles: 'Manchester United wouldn't travel like this'.

DVDS, ipads and sleep is what keeps most the squad occupied for the journey, but it's interesting to see Michel flicking through an English phrase book next to his close pal Enric 'Ricky' Valles.

We arrive at Shenyang's Sheraton Hotel around midday and, although the accommodation isn't up to the players' usual standards, their moaning stops when they arrive at the nearby stadium just a short coach journey away.

Shenyang Olympic Stadium was built for and hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics' football tournament and it a very impressive facility. It has a City of Manchester Stadium feel about it and is without doubt the best arena geared for football that Birmingham have visited out here in China so far.

In the familiar humid conditions, Blues run through their usual training drills with the highlight being half-an-hour of finishing practice. My observations: Stuart Parnaby clearly isn't a finisher, Valles and David Murphy both have a mean shot while Kevin Phillips is as clinical as ever.

Top government officials are said to be coming to tomorrow's game against Liaoning Hongyun. I'm later told that the chaps in purple t-shirts hanging around the stadium trying to look unimportant are in fact secret police.

Thursday:

Four players - Nikola Zigic, Roger Johnson, Michel and Ben Foster - are selected to head off to the outskirts of Beijing to film an Xtep TV commercial. Cameron Jerome was supposed to be another but he's laid low with a dodgy stomach alongside his team-mate O'Connor.

From what I hear, Zigic is asked to roar towards a zip camera; a task that he appears to take great delight in doing.

The rest of the players are given the option to head out to the Great Wall of China. Liam Ridgewell and Scott Dann instead decide to head back down to Beijing's Silk City market to fish out some more bargains.

Wednesday:

It's match day part two and the most mouth-watering of the tour given the arena Blues are playing in.

Beijing Guoan are the opponents and the Bird's Nest is the venue.

However, while the atmosphere lived up to the occasion with an attendance that was said to be 73,000 but looked more like 50,000, the stadium was something of a let down.

Aesthetically beautiful, practically terrible. White elephant comes to mind.

Inside, the Bird's Nest is just a vast cavern of nothingness. There's bound to be dust-covered rooms somewhere in the building that haven't had human contact since the 2008 Olympics.

Tuesday:

The players have been given the morning off training and instead pay a visit to Beijing's ancient Forgotten City. A police escort helps get us through the hustle and bustle of the People's Republic's capital.

It was strange to see the squad in their normal clothes, as they've only worn Blues training kit up until now. Garry O'Connor and Liam Ridgewell appear determined to make some sort of fashion statement. O'Connor wore some sort of flimsly scarf around his neck (despite the sunshine beating down on Beijing) while Ridgewell donned a green wide open neck t-shirt with crinkly cardigan.

Nikola Zigic, who must have forgot that it was a non-uniform day as he turned up in full training kit, appears to be something of a culture vulture on this trip. Wherever he goes the Serbian is seen snapping away on his iphone and it's no surprise to see the striker further filling his photo memory at the 15th century complex.

On the way back, the playing squad stop off at a nearby indoor market to do a stop of shopping and word is that Cameron Jerome's haggling over a Louis Vuitton bag upset one stall holder.

Monday:

It's time to move on to the next leg of Birmingham City's tour of China, with Beijing the next stop.

We're up bright and early to catch a 9am flight from Hong Kong airport. The talk among the players is of the charity dinner the previous night, more specifically the food. It appears that the shark fin soup, the first of ten courses, was just the start of several dishes that didn't go down too well with Big Eck's fussy eaters.

While checking in, there's a decent size group of Chinese Blues fans mingling around the players for autographs and photos. When one fan comes over and asks to have a picture taken with me, I presume that he may have me mixed up with some fringe player and I politely inform him that I'm no Premier League footballer.

But to my surprise, he does know who I am as he's a regular viewer of Blues View, so I duly pose for a pic with the gentleman. Yet that wasn't it, moments later two girls, again regular Blues View viewers, also approach me to ask the same - it's certainly the closest I'll ever get to global fame!

Sunday:

It's match time and unfortunately for the Blues players it's the hottest day since we've been out here.

We head back to Hong Kong Stadium to see them take on a select XI and while I'm baking away in the shaded area of the press bench, I can only feel sorry for those down on the field. Glancing down at the team-sheet, I notice that the middle names had been omitted this time, that is apart from Cameron Rana-Jerome (or as they say out here, Jeremy).

The first-half performance is sloppy, particularly in defence as Roger Johnson's regular ranting and swearing suggested, but that's not surprising given the conditions. The reaction of the locals inside the stadium to particular incidents in the game is intriguing; a long ball from the back that comes to nothing is cheered as if somebody had just rattled a thunderous shot off the crossbar.

The scorers for Hong Kong celebrate their goals as if it's the World Cup final, which goes to show how much the occasion means to them.

The second-half turns out to be better for Blues; they begin to get a control on the game and eventually go on to secure victory. A slight shame as a penalty shoot-out would have been nice. The previously unknown Enric Valles showed up well while fellow new-boy Nikola Zigic set up Garry O'Connor for the tidy winner.