Hey again!

I am having serious troubles with these Chinese computers. I tried to upload the photos I have taken so far, and it decided to upload just one photo and it wasnt even of China! Anyway, I will have to try again when im in Australia or something.
We went to the Grea Wall today, climbed up the 1000 or so steps to the top, and apparently if you manage that you are classed as a 'hero'! It was pretty cold up there though, nothing like yesterdays weather. On the way back down the wall we took the cable car, which was nice because you could see the view for miles. There was a little market type thing at the bottom of the wall as well, i bought a little canvas of a tiger with some chinese symbols next to it-should really check what that says really before i go displaying it somewhere! It rolls up thouigh which is quite handy-we did some serious bargaining on the market, which is apparently what happens there-the price you see on the tag should never be what you pay. Basically I managed to get my painting down from 95 to just 20yuan (which is only 2 quid!) so was quite pleased with that.
On the journey back to Beijing, which took about 2 hours, we saw some interesting sights! First of all ive noticed that a lot of people will use their bikes rather than cars. I guess i knew that already, but they seriously have big planks of wood and loads of sacks to carry on there but they seem to manage it! Also we saw two men sleeping on the back of a pickup truck while we were onthe highway (or Motorway as we say!)They noticed us giggling at them so they laughed with us and waved. As a western person you get stared at quite a lot over here. I thought there would be quite a few people visiting as Tourists, but there really arent! On my tour group for the next 8 days im sharing a room with a American girl called Kim, then there is also some Irish, American and British people, although Kim and I are the only singles! All the other people are in couples and are over the age of 30, but they are really nice and friendly-its not like they are old and boring! :-)
Tonight we are meeting in about an hour (5pm our time) to go for a Peking Duck dinner at quite a famous restaurant apparently. That will come to about 5quid equvalent per person. Then we are off to a performance of Kung Fu, which is supposed to be really good.
Our hotle we are only staying in last night and tonight, and they give us free internet for 15mins, hence why I havent had time to faf around with the photos, but i have had time to write on here twice in two days!
We are going to a sleeper train tomorrow night so we can get to Xi'an (pronounced 'shee-ann' ). I think that is where our tour leader is originally from so that will be good. Our tour leader is called May, and her English is excellent most of the time-the rest of the time she has to apologise to us for her 'Chinglish' as she calls it!
Also, i have learnt some words today...cant remember them really but i know Ni Hao means Hello, and Xie Xie means thank you. I also know some numbers but dont know how to spell those! It is actually quite cold sat next to this window-weather sems to be very interchangeable. Its jumper weather today! Apparently later in the week we are going to a city a bit like Venice, all on water so that should be good.
Oh something else i found quite cool but its a bit silly really! When the traffic lights are either on red or green, it counts down how many seconds you have before the lights are going to change back...how cool is that??!!
OOOhhh hello....a cat has just jumped down from a roof and is now trying to come into the window...random. Apparently if you have a dog in China you have to pay a fee, sort of like a license to own your dog, but the size of the dog depends on how much you pay. Needless to say there are small dogs here! We also asked about the one child policy, and apprently it is still valid in China, however there are exceptions. If you have more than one child you have to pay a fine and professional people could even lose their jobs!
We also learnt that Beijing has a population of about 20million, and the largest populated city in the world is just at the tip of the yellow river in Chgina, with 33million people.
Anyway, lesson over for you now! I best get up to my room and re-arrange my rucksack, lots of stuff right sat the bottom that i will need soon!
Speak to you all again soon hopefully. xxxxx