We arrived in Beijing, blurry eyed about 8am and got a cab from the train station to our hostel, whicj was lazy but it was really reasonable and we even got a printed receipt showing distance, time etc. pretty funny! After unpacking into a lovely double room we went for a walk to explore the area.

Tiannamen Square is only a 10 minute walk away. It is the biggest public square in the world, there are hundreds of tourists there but still it is mainly open space! There we could also see the famous Gate of Heavenly Peace with the massive picture of Mao. The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, where the embalmed Mao now lies, we didn't go in, after of Ho Chi Minh experience! There is also the Monument to the People's Heros, which was very impressive.

From here we walked to explore the antique street, Liulichang, needless to say we didn't buy any of the overpriced antiques (probably made 6 months ago!) It was a lovely street to walk down though, it has been rebuilt to look like an old chinese street, Pingyao-esque and through the old Hutongs, which are the old narrow alleyways like rabbit warrens where many of the Beijing residents live and run their little shops.

For dinner we treated ourselves to Peking Duck in a beautiful restaurant, one of the oldest duck restaurants in Beijing, it was beautiful though we felt very underdressed and nearly cried at the prices. When the duck is brought to the table (beak included) a chef carves it in front of you before you are given a demonstration of how to fill the pancake, using chopsticks, no fingers allowed!! It was gorgeous especially the tongue and the crispy skin dipped in garlic and sugar! After demolishing a whole duck we rolled ourselves back to the hostel for a relatively early night.

Yesterday we were woken before 6am by some over enthusiastic builders, pretty much the whole of Beijing is undergoing massive development, reconstruction and building work at the moment in preparation for the Olympics and the area right by our hostel (and in our case right outside our bedroom window!) is no exception! However, by 9am the noise had stopped and we grabbed a couple more hours sleep. When we got up the staff insisted we move to a quieter room, top notch service, we are very impressed!

After all that we finally headed out to go and try to see the birds nest, the new Olympic National Stadium. After a long journey on the tube followed by nearly an hours walk we found the Olympic Park site - it would have been so much easier if they had finished the train line there already! The stadium is very impressive, although you cannot get very close as a lot of the building work on car-parks and other buildings hasn't been finished yet, they still have 2 months to do it, although it looks like there is still quite a lot to do.

At one point a small section of the fence had been removed and lots of chinese people were climbing a pile of rubble for a better view - only 50m from the police, who seemed to be turning a blind eye to it, so of course we joined in!

We split up the journey home with a visit to the Lama Temple, heralded as Beijing's best Buddhist Temple. Quite a large complex with many interrnal buildings, one houses a record-breaking Buddha, he is 18m high and made from one piece of sandalwood. The temple is also the largest and most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet, it was converted into a Lamasary in 1744 after serving as the former residence of Emporor Yong Zheng. The buildings were really beautiful and it contains some great artwork and tapestries, it was a really relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

During the evening we had a few beers and ended up chatting with a group of people until 1am, thats what travelling is all about and we intend to make the most of it on our final week - chatting with people from all over the world about all sorts and drinking lots of cheap beer!

Despite the late night we were still up early this morning and ready for a full day at the Forbidden City. Off limits to all outsiders for over 500 years the Forbidden City was home to emperors of both the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is set about a north south axis, built between 1406 and 1420, home to some 960 buildings, enclosed by 8m high 7m thick walls and surrounded by a 50m wide 6m deep moat! It is a whole city within a city, as you enter through the Supreme Harmony Gate you are greeted by a courtyard that could hold imperial audiences of up to 100,000 people.

The most important buildings fall into 2 groups of 3 set on the north-south axis, the Outer Court and Inner Court. The outer court performed state functions and ceremonies whereas the emperor lived and worked almost exclusively within the Inner Court. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest buiding within the city, and rises some 30 metres above the level of the surrounding square in the Outer court. It is the ceremonial centre of imperial power, and the largest surviving wooden structure in China. Unfortunately we couldn't go in here as it is being rennovated ahead of the 600 year anniversay in 2020!! The outer court contains more amazing things, including a 200 ton bas-relief carved out of marble and was transported into the city using iced roads.

On the advice of Lonely Planet we went to go and see the Clock Exhibiton Hall and timed it to coincide with 11am when certain clocks strike, it was pretty impressive although only 3 clocks struck which was slightly disappointing. The other clocks on display though were incredibly elaborate, many of them coming from England as gifts to emperors, one even includes a working model of the solar system.

The rest of the Forbidden City is just as elaborate and incredibly interesting, it contains so many builings, squares, gardens etc we spent over 5 hours looking about and didn't cover it all! It is amazing to think what went on here all those years ago, the important decisons that were made, how a country was run from the inside. It was the home of emperors until 1912 when the last emperor, Puyi abdicated.

To give us more of an insight we hired an audio guide, which turned out to be a great buy, it obviously had some type of reciever inside it, when you got to a place of interest you got the commentary pretty much at the right time and was very interesting too. It also contained a map and showed you where you were within the grounds by flashing in the right place!

Thankfully we managed to leave the Forbidden City alive, unlike in the past where you would've more than likely been killed before you made it to the gate! We crossed the moat and headed north into Jingshan Park and onto a hill that was built using the dirt that was excavated when the moat was created. It offers grest 360 degree views over Beijing and stunning views over the Forbidden City.

It has been a long day but really interesting and enjoyable, We are off to bed now after a tiring day, tomorrow we have a very early start and hope to be wowed by the Great Wall.

Love A&S xxx