In the summer of 2009 Hull City travelled 5,000 miles to compete in the Premier League Asia Trophy staged in Beijing. Phil Brown’s side were unable to bring silverware home but it remains a landmark trip in the club’s history.

The song suggests there are nine million bicycles in Beijing but a decade ago it was also home to an estimated 500 Hull City supporters. They were spotted on Tiananmen Square and inside the Forbidden City. An hour away there was even more making their allegiances known on the Badaling Pass, the popular tourist section of the Great Wall of China.

It was a pre-season trip like no other. Not before or after. Ahead of only their second campaign in the top-flight, Hull City joined Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United in heading to the Chinese capital to compete for the 2009 Premier League Asia Trophy.

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Participation was worth £500,000 to the three English clubs but for the City fans who made the journey 10 years ago the memories were priceless.

Hull City fans at the Workers Stadium in Beijing for the 2009 Premier League Asia Trophy
Hull City fans at the Workers Stadium in Beijing for the 2009 Premier League Asia Trophy

“As soon it got announced it was one those things that felt like an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Chris Hamilton, a life-long City supporter who made the trip to China.

“It’s similar to the Tampa Bay trip in the 1980s, something that could almost define a generation for supporters. It turned out to be a crazy experience.”

A City side led by Phil Brown played two games during a week-long stay China. After overcoming Beijing Guoan, the local side that completed the competition’s quarter, in a penalty shoot-out, two days later they were beaten 3-0 by Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham in a one-sided final at the 66,000-capacity Workers Stadium.

Those fixtures, though, were only part of the story. City had accepted the Premier League’s invite after avoiding relegation on the final day of the previous season, with the intention of announcing themselves to a new audience in the Far East. The Tigers had played as far afield as Trinidad and Guyana in 1973 but never before in Asia. “We’ve made a name for ourselves all over the world,” said an enthusiastic Brown ahead of the trip.

The local media clearly needed no introductions to City’s boss on his arrival. A reputation proceeded him and his team. During his first press conference at Beijing’s Grand Hyatt Hotel he was asked to replicate the singing that had taken place back home at the KCOM Stadium three months earlier.

Brown politely declined but was then asked what song he had in mind for his next impromptu karaoke session. “I will survive,” he laughed. He didn’t, of course, and nor did City but that trip to Beijing remains one of the best many had been on.

“It was a surreal week,” added Hamilton. “Bumping into City fans on the Great Wall of China. You could spot our fans a mile off. On the second day we were there we had to go and pick up tickets from this industrial area where the Premier League had an office.

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“There was a tube station with hundreds of Chinese businessmen all flooding out and then you’d see a six-foot westerner with his City shirt on.

“I’d say there was 300 to 400 people in one section for the first game but for the second game, once people knew where we were sat, there was a lot of ex-pats, people from Hong Kong and Singapore, and there was more like 700 for the final. I’m so glad so many people made it out there.

“I was interviewed outside the ground by Thai TV and my friend owned a B&B out there at the time. I got a message off him saying he’d spat out his corn flakes when he’d seen me on the TV. It didn’t last long but City got an awful lot of coverage on the back of that trip.”

Among the travelling City squad was a 20-year-old Nicky Featherstone. The Goole-born midfielder was one of several youngsters taken along for the ride.

“I was only 20 at the time so you don’t really appreciate what an experience it was,” said Featherstone. “I don’t think I took it all on board.

Hull City's Michael Turner (centre) in action with Beijing Guoan's Yang Zhi in the semi-final of the Asia Trophy
Hull City's Michael Turner (centre) in action with Beijing Guoan's Yang Zhi in the semi-final of the Asia Trophy

“But looking back now it was great. It’s not a place you’d necessarily go if it wasn’t for football. It’s not somewhere I’d have gone. It was good to go and see a part of the world I’d probably not have visited.

“We were in the same hotel as Tottenham and West Ham. We’d train at the same spots as them as well and (Gianfranco) Zola was in charge of West Ham at the time. It was good to see them up close in training.”

Brown was beginning to sense City were a club unravelling financially in the summer of 2009, with speculation rife over the future of star defender Michael Turner, but he had made it clear he had wanted to return with silverware.

The first hurdle was overcome when narrowly beating Beijing Guoan. Geovanni’s stunning goal was cancelled out by an equaliser from William Paul Modibo and it needed a penalty shoot-out win for the Tigers to tee up a final against Tottenham 48 hours later.

An opponent that included Luka Modric and Tom Huddlestone in their starting line-up had too much. Robbie Keane’s double was followed by another from Aaron Lennon to cap a 3-0 win for a Spurs side that would go on and win 5-1 at the KCOM Stadium three weeks later.

“I didn’t feature at all in the game against Beijing but started against Tottenham,” added Featherstone, now preparing for a new season with Hartlepool.

“That was hard. We never seemed to see the sun at all because it was so cloudy but it was so humid.

“That made the conditions difficult, especially when you were up against a Tottenham team that had the likes of Modric, Defoe and Huddlestone. They had a very good team and we didn’t see too much of the ball.”

Tottenham Hotspur's Jermain Defoe tries to beat Tony Warner in the Hull City goal
Tottenham Hotspur's Jermain Defoe tries to beat Tony Warner in the Hull City goal

City fans, outnumbering those from West Ham and Tottenham, were unperturbed by the result. The singing accompanied them out of the Workers Stadium and into the bars of Beijing. There, on the eve of the final, they had also been joined by Brown and chairman Paul Duffen.

“It was before the second game and there’d been a gathering organised by the club at this Irish bar,” explained Hamilton. “There was a barbecue and free beer. I can remember one point when there was a conga line of supporters going around the bar.

“Both Phil Brown and Paul Duffen were superb company. A lot of supporters had struggled to get a programme from the first game and it was Paul Duffen who’d said there’d been some in the hospitality areas of the ground.

“He ended up speaking to the Premier League and two weeks after we’d got home we had these programmes sent to our home address. That was a great touch.”

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