Ni Hao!

First proper day in the capital, wandered over to Tian'an men square via the grand theatre which looked a mix between the o2 and the opera house in cardiff! In the square we met our new friend Eddie the Eagle, a kite which we practiced our haggling skills for. We're not very good! 200 yuan, we then got offer the same thing for 100 without haggling! ha It seems we can't fly kites either, but after some help from a chinese man Lucy's now pro! Hyde park here she comes.

Continuing to cause fascination wherever we go, had loads more photos taken today. Two guys even paid a photo seller for their picture with us. One man outside the forbidden city seemed very fond of Vik too!!

We then met a friend called Lily, she's from a town outside Shanghai and was travelling around China for the month. Her english was amazing and she took us to one of the Hutongs (back alley!) where we went to a teahouse and had a private ceremony. We tried 12 different chinese teas (which Rach loved!). It was quite expensive but an excellent experience, and Lily bought us some tea as a gift! She's asked us to stay wih her when we visit Shanghai. We later realised she had just conned us, and it was part of the big teascam which is common in China!

The toilets here are fun, holes in the floor and often with no partition. Vik's not impressed!!

We had a little look at one of the late night food markets, where they had starfish, scorpians, testicles and snakes- all on sticks to eat! We weren't adventurous enough tho to try (also full of tea).

We popped in to a large modern shopping centre, big contrast to everything else we've seen, much more like home. The toilets even had walls! Vik loved it =)

We didn't actually make it to the Forbidden city so we're going to do that tomorrow and see some Chinese Acrobats in the evening!

We'll upload pictures when we can.

Lots of love xxx