Finally managed to get round to an internet cafe. Has been pretty hectic since i last was on as we are on the go and seeing things most of the time.

The summer palace was awesome when we went to see it and the fact that the weather was so good helped aswell. I went there with some of the swedish girls, harriet and andy who are all from my group that are doing the tour. Is quite strange as im actually one the 4th oldest out of 15 of us which i wasn't expecting at all but is good cause we all get on really well and usually meet up for meals and stuff in the evening.

Have found ordering things quite a bit easier now, usually we just order lots of differnt dishes when we go out for a meal and just share. Have a few pharese and dishes written down now aswell so can use that to get by in most situations.

ANyway back to what i've vbeen up to. On sunday we went to tiananmen square and the forbidden city with a guide that out group leader had sorted out for us. Unfortunatly they had a meeting of all the leaders from all the chinese provinces on that day so we culdnt get on the square and were moved on everytime we stoppped to try and take some photos. We had no problems getting into the forbidden city though and the size of the place was amazing. It was also very quiet insicde despite it being in the centre of beijing, and the intricate detail of all the buildings was amazing.

We spent a few hours walking round there then went out for dinner again with everyone before getting an early night as we were leaving the hostel at 7 the next morning to head to the great wall.

After a sleep on the bus (and a McDonalds breakfast im shamed to admit!) we got to a small village near a quiet section of the great wall to meet our guide who would take us along the wall. Again the weather was perfect as it wasnt to hot to walk but still warm eough to be comfortable in t shirts. We walked for a few hours along a small section of the wall and it was just as i had imagined with it snaking off over the hills in both directions for as far as you could see. When we had finished that section of the wall we headed towards our hostel for the night but as we had made good time on our walk and still had plenty of day light left most of the group decided to head to another section of the wall and find somewhere to watch the sunset rathetr than do it in the morning as was originally planned. This section of the wall was a lot steeper but we found a great spot on top of one of the towers and sat down waiting for the sun to set. It was pretty cold and got quite misty and in the end the sun just dissapeared instead of setting but we all had a good laug and it was a good chance to get to know everyone in the group a bit more so think everyone enjoyed it.

I've got to go and sort out checking out of the hotel we are in now but the next stop on the tour is shanghai so will try and get back on then and upload a few more photos and update this blog a bit more.

Hope all is wll at home, haven't really heard anything about the situation in tibet apart from what ive read on the internet so dont think itll affect us at all. Have tried to keep up with football as much as possible and was gonna try and find somewhere to watch the games on sunday but think we are going to be in the missle of nowhere so soubt itll be possible. Good to see arsenal crumbling though, they'll be out od the race after the game against chelsea!!