Tue 5/6
Started our sightseeing today! Planned to go to the summer palace and the lama temple was on the way so stopped off at it first. It was a lovely tibetan buddhist temple with lots of lovely architecture and a nice smell of incense all around. Cam broke his sun glasses before we left India so we also stopped off at a shopping area on our way to the summer palace, very expensive area and couldn't find any apart from ones in an opticians which were designer £300 odd pairs. So after an hour or so wasted on our mission we arrived at the Summer Palace and what do you know, i was right, as soon as you stop looking there they are, and lots of them!! Anyway the summer palace was a beautiful place! You could spend a whole day wandering round the buildings and the grounds! You can even go off the beaten track up the hill where there are more little treasures to be found hidden amongst the trees! (bit of a hike at times tho!) its great coz for a brief moment you get peace from the crowds. After exploring we hired a pedal boat on the lake for an hour where you get far better views of the surrounding area! Our tube ride back was an interesting experience! Certainly understand the phrase 'packed like sardines' And I took us a different route to try and avoid the city centre area! Doesn't seem to make a difference here!

Wed 6/6
Off to the Great Wall of China! The day started off cloudy so we hummed and hayed wether we should go or not but after looking up the weather there was mixed reports and sounded like there was more chance of rain the next day so we stuck to our plan. Ended up being glad it was cloudy coz although it wasn't too good for views and photos it was still quite hot trekking the wall! We didn't realise how steep some parts were! It was actually harder walking down (especially the sloped parts with no steps) than walking up. We sat to long in the cafe after having lunch and the heavens opened just after we left so had to huddle in a doorway in our shorts n t-shirt with no coats waiting for the bus and then in the mad rush to get on the bus without getting drenched we realised we jumped on the wrong bus and couldn't use our return ticket and had to pay again. Thankfully it was going in the right direction tho. (still saved money by not going on an organised tour) When we got back into Beijing we headed out to the Olympic Park which hosted the 2008 olympics and paralympics, again not top of our sightseeing list but I read there was a water park and it was really beautiful at night, when we got there it was raining again and nearly didn't stay as it was too late for the water park but really glad we did. It was huge, the building were stunning and even more so when they are light up at night! (think we toke more photos here than at the great wall!lol) They have made a really great tourist attraction out of the area! (London has a lot to match up to!)

Thu 7/6 (Today)
Early start today for the Zoo! Decided to skip breakfast (not open early enough) to get to the zoo in time for the panda feeding as we read that they sleep all day after being fed. Thought that the more expensive breakfast would be worth it to see the panda but we were wrong! Well the panda was so cute, bigger than I expected, think they might be my new favourite animal! Cam thought it looked like a man in a suit!lol. The breakfast on the other-hand was non-existent! We had the choice of hamburger or fried chicken, we were hungry so ordered one hamburger which was the worst! It was chicken but it looked like they had cut a whole pile of "chicken" up packed it and cooked it in a tray and cut it into squares and slapped in a roll! Its worse than processed chicken! It went in the bin and i hate to say it but after we finished at the zoo we went to McDonalds for some decent food, yes McDonalds! The zoo was interesting! The park itself was lovely, spacious and clean but think there were more cleaners than zoo keepers. It was a shame as some (not all) of the animals looked in poor condition, their coats were patchy and shabby. Some enclosures were very basic compared to other zoos I have visited! The chinese as tourists are also awful! They bang on cages, shout at the animals and even throw things at them to get good photos! Needless to say I gave a lot of disgusted looks at times! Especially when a man was throwing nuts at the terribly cute brown bear even though there was a huge sign saying not to feed the animals! The aquarium within the zoo on the other-hand (although a little over priced for Beijing) was great! Very modern with lots of variety, I loved the colourful jellyfish displays and Cam really enjoyed the Dolphin show. (Mark they had American lobsters which were huge!! Cam thinks they were about 2 feet long. Don't think Cam would even get his fingers round the body never mind me! Unfortunately they were not for sale! Would have been a tasty tea!lol) In the afternoon we headed to Tiananmen Square which is the largest public square in the world then on to the Forbidden City, we were a bit late in arriving so missed doing a tour within but we were both secretly glad because we were knackered! Looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow before our overnight train to Pingyao! Been a very busy few days! We both absolutely love Beijing!