Hi all gemma and joe here form Beijing!! Yes we made it had a fantastic night in the Sheraton hotel on Sunday before catching our flight on Monday afternoon, the flight was great free wine all the way and great chinese food. We landed on time at Beijing airport which is huge we even had to catch a train to get our backpacks it was that big! We were met by Bruce who works in the hostel we were booked into he had a big sign with our names on.

Within 10 minutes of leaving the aiprort on a four lane carriageway Bruce braked sharply and we were hit by another car from behind (we are absolutly fine no injuries)within two minutes the police arrived as we sat in the back of the car giggling what a great start (see photos)

Arrived at the hostel it's really nice and clean got a big double bed and shower, aircon etc, evryone is dead friendly. Very few westerneres around so getting some strange looks! We were knackered so had a chinese curry and few beers and went to bed early!
Up at 5am for a look around Joe ended up playing table tennis in the park with some chinese families before 6am. Breakfast was free at half seven very nice then we went for a wander to see some sights went to Jingshan Park next to the Forbidden city we are going to the Birds Nest Olympic Stadium tomorrow and then on a four and half hour hike on the Great Wall on Friday.

One of the girls has booked us our overnight sleeper train to take us to Xian on Sunday night it's 11 hours so wonder who we will be put in a carriage with will keep you updated.

We have just discovered that beer in our hostel is 30p for a pint bottle so we are gonna chill tonight in the lounge with a couple of beers just had an amazing chinese meal 6 quid in total with beers as well and we ate it all with chopsticks how cool!

Hope you are all well and thanks for logging on we have put a few photies on but will put more on on Saturday or Sunday before we move onto Xian.

Take care love to all xxxx