We arrived in Beijing by train to be met by the biggest crowds we have ever seen - From beginning to end Beijing was like leaving a football ground (probably not CCFC) and have the crowd stay with you all day. We queued and took a taxi, then had an interesting tour of Beijing for the next hour - a little earlier than we had planned but the taxi driver was obviously keen for us to see his city! The driver drove deep into the hutong area, turned off the road into an alley and dropped us off by a smaller alley with our accommodation being at the end of an even smaller alley!

Beijing is an amazing city from the China of yesteryear still surviving in the Hutongs to ultra-modern high-rise, neon lit metropolitan centres. On the roads cars, bikes, tuk-tuks, buses, electric motorcyles and pedestrians all intermingled in a crazy system which is both scary and exhilarating at the same time.

We did all the touristy stuff - Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, ate Peking Duck etc. - Bizarrely, Chines tourists approached us on several occasions to have a photo taken with us. We travelled 130 Kilometres to visit a part of the Great Wall that was not visited by mass tourism - in a 52 seater coach? ….. But it was actually GREAT even incredible. Travelling by the efficient and cheap (20p) metro station was considerably easier than in Moscow, with all the signs having English translation, although it does close early (about 10:30) and one night after a late meal (and drink) we found ourselves stuck without tube or available taxi at about 11:30 - We had to hire a tuk-tuk (convertible) basically a supermarket trolley being towed by a motor-bike. It was surreal to weave through the midnight traffic of a major city on an exposed trailer, then disappear into the alleyways of the hutongs, passing groups of dimly lit men still playing Mah Jong into the night.

We both went for a haircut in a trendy unisex salon, but only £10 for the two of us - Check out the Kojak look. The street food in the market was "interesting" - Live scorpions on a stick, silkworm pupae and bullfrog all featuring heavily. The air was heavy with smog and throat clearing, spitting and farting were all frequent occurrences on the street. The acrobatic show was an unexpected highlight of our stay, with all the acts performing seemingingly unbelievable stunts.

Sunday morning we went to the Olympic Stadium (the Birds Nest) and spent half an hour "whizzing" round it on Segways - How cool is that? A week passed quickly and Monday morning at 6.00am saw us on our way to Pingyao via 2 trains and 12 hours travelling - the "high"light being on the top of a 3 high set of bunks (above the luggage rack!) with no headroom.