Just to give you an update and let you alll know we are ok, having a brilliant time in Beijing. Moved hotels this morning to a much much nicer place that i think is more geared up to backpackers so much happier!

Did a lot yesterday and had the blisters to prove it! Went to the Fobidden city which in a word is MASSIVE!!!! it has lots of little palaces and rooms in it and we got lost! When u think youve found the exit it just keeps going but it is amazing! We had our first taste of meat on a stick here as well we think it was pork and it was quite nice, shared our table with some Chinese who I'm sure were laughing at my feeble attempts to use chopsticks!

Then we went to Tian'anmen square which is even bigger with a 30ft painting of the Chairman, his mausoleum was closed for a refit, some american told us Mao's ear had come off so they had to sew it back on again.

After that we walked what looked to be a short distance to the Temple of Heaven, how wrong we were! 45mins from Tian'anmen Square, and to make matters worse all the signs are in Chinese which makes navigating rather difficult.

When we got there to be honest it was lovely and the gardens were very pretty but it was another temple and we were tired, plus its a Chinese national holiday this week and the places were heaving (according to the news 110,000 people visited the Forbidden city yesterday which is 3x the normal amount) so we wanted to go home. Had our picture taken a few times, some will ask, some just just take them then stare! The walk home was ridiculous its one long straight road but it took us the best part of 2 hours to reach our hotel and we were soooo tired!

So for tea we thought we'd go somewhere close to home and the first peice of english we saw was "California Beef noddle King USA - Mr Lee's", so we tried it and after a game of charades we figured out it was beef noodles or nothing! I chose beef nodles with salad and something that looks like pickled centipedes and si had beef and pickled centipedes. I appear to be mastering the chopsticks, and was soon tucking in, Si after trying a centepede (which I didnt have the guts to do) wasnt feeling too good so we made a sharp exit.

This morning after moving hostels we had a chinese breakfast of dumplings, porridge and pickled veg, and it was really nice, to be honest best food we've had since we arrived. After that we went to the Drum tower, and saw lots of old time keeping devices which were very good (video's and pictures will be uploaded soon) and we saw some drum beating which doesnt sound very impressive but wait until you see the vids and pics!

Now we're going to have lunch then off to Coal Hill, which was built outside the forbidden city by an emperor years ago so he could view his city, as Beijing itself has no hills and is very flat.

All in all having a good time, Chinese people are odd but seem to be quite nice amazed by how many of them have pet dogs, and how many bicycles its mayhem!

speak to you all soon

Love Bec and Si xxx