This is very much a retrospective entry as I'm struggling to keep the blog up, think I'm going to end up writing about most of China from Australia when I get there!

After my slightly unorthodox first day in Shanghai I spent the second day shopping for a camera then hopped on an overnight train up to Beijing. I shared my carriage with a man whose snoring could put the other giants in the BFG to shame but arrived in Beijing running high on adrenaline. After briefly getting lost (the lonely planet's map contain's 'Pinyin' English for all the road sign translations, the Chinese helpfully changed a lot of them to true English translations for the Olympics!) I met up with Dave, a mate from school, who'd arrived in Beijing two days previously. We didn't want to waste any time so headed straight for the Forbidden City, just a 15 minute walk from our hostel. We had a brief amusing incident with a hawker who gave us the hard sell on a tour to the Great Wall then explained how we were capitalists and she was a socialist and headed into the walled 'city'.

The Forbidden City was the residence of the Emperor in Beijing. The Emperor received distinguished guests in the front buildings and lived behind, with only high ranking officials allowed behind the scenes and even then they had to walk through their assigned entrances, certainly not the same one as the Emperor! All the initial gates and halls are on a huge scale and styled in the curved roofs that everyone associates with China. On every corner there are a number of mythical and real animals, their number indicating the importance of the building. By every staircase lie massive rock carvings, ingeniously brought to Beijing by covering paths with water in the winter and sliding them on the ice. The effect would undoubtedly have been intimidating to any visitor, which is surely the intention!

Behind the facade though there is a beautiful garden, with stones (along with water the centrepiece of traditional Chinese gardens, not plants and trees!) from all over China. Also, there are a number of smaller buildings where the officials and bureaucrats really ran the country, trying to enact the wishes of their leader. The Forbidden City was definitely the picture postcard introduction to China I was hoping for.

Unfortunately our attepts to then head to Tiananmen Square were thwarted as it was closed ready for the Paralympic closing ceremony celebrations so after a quick bite at a Japanese fast food restaurant (they're really quite common here!) we headed back as my batteries needed a quick recharge!

After a nap it was time to gear up for dinner. It was time to try and sample traditional Peking Duck. After ordering in a gaudy eatery recommended by the Lonely Planet (fast becoming our bible!) we were initially disappointed when a pretty small offering of duck arrived at the table. Resolving to order some rice to pad it out we began only for another plate of duck to arrive, then another! All in all we were stuffed, and headed off for a celebratory beer in the only bar we'd read was near our hostel, the 'John Bull' Bar.

What happened next is now referred to by Dave and I as the 'John Bull saga'. We walked for a total of 2 hours and didn't see a single bar, let alone the one we had a map to. It seems poor old John Bull is no more. This was to become a common theme over the next week. China is developing at such an incredible rate that a fair bit of what is in our year-old Lonely Planet has simply disappeared. Unfortunately the new edition isn't out yet to replace it so a lot of what we have to do is guesswork!

After our exhausting slog we settled for buying a bottle and drinking it on the rooftop terrace, deciding the best way to prepare for our Great Wall walk was to stay up that little bit later!