BEIJING I

We landed in Beijing on a chilly Friday morning under a clear blue sky and were instantly met by out travel rep, Lily - pronounced Lei-Lay. Nim took a shining to her instanly as she reminded him of his current infatuation, Lily Allen. Beijing seemed to be an urban zoo where cars, bikes and pedestrains where all in a battle for the same space, with none of them winning.

The streets of Beijing of were broken up in blocks and grids, whilst each street corner seemed to be further Americanised with its own KFC and Starbucks on each corner. Lily was very talkative and withn minutes she insited that we go with her on the same night to an Acrobatic show for the small sum of 100 pounds. We thanked her for the offer and said we would think about it and let her know by ringing her later in the day.

We arrived at our 4 star hotel an hour and half (after Lily had assured us that it was only 15 minutes away) which was right next to the Forbiddan City. In the hotel we attempted to convert our travellers cheques and were served by 5 hysterical reception ladies who squabbled with each other, made me sign 6 forms and at one point even snapped at me!?

Both Timla and I had grossly underestimated the effects of jet lag and were feeling really drained, however despite this we decided to go for a walk around, but before we could do this we received a phone call in our room. It was Lily, who just called to confirm our attendance to the Acrobatic show tonight, I once again re-iterated that we would let her know if we wanted to attend, she was really persistant!

Once we took to the city we found negotiating the streets very challenging, crossing the 5 lane roads even with the aid of a green light, a zebra crossing and policeman meant taking your life into your own hands, within 10 minutes, Nims nearly got hit by 2 cars and a bike while I nearly got mowed down by a bus! It reached the point when each time we crossed the road we converted our brisk walk to a 100 metre sprint.

Later that night we had a drink in our hotel where we were speaking to our bartender called Alan, who told us about the Chinese people and its heritage and I suspected that he also worked for the Tibet Tourism Board because he spoke for 30 minutes about the wonders of Tibet. Just before we went to sleep we were called once again by Lily about the Acrobatic show, she was becoming really obsessive now, so we appropriately labbled her the bunny boiler!

Our actual excursions began with a visit to Tinnaman Square and the Forbidden City, followed by the Temple of Heaven, where Timla and I got lost after we witnessed a freestyle rap by an 80 year old Chinese dude. This was followed by an old chinese lady kicking a flourescent shuttle c*** in my direction, so in turn i kicked it back to her and we played keepy uppies for about 2 minutes. I was sold instantly and randomly purchased one with the encorougement of Nims.

Once we realised we were lost we walked by ourselves in a sea of thousands of Chinese tourists who continually pushed us and cursed us in Mandarin. November seems to be the month when all Chinese people from all the provinces decide to visit their capital and therefore all the sights were very congested and over-croweded. We walked in circles for and luckily found our group an hour later and continued to the Emperors Summer Palace. This was an amazing palace on top of a hill beside the lake where the Emperor would go in the Summer to escape the pressues of everyday life, it made Buckingham Palace look like a two bedroom flat in North Wembly!

Sunday our excursion took us to the Ming Tombs and then the Great Wall of China, walking up the steep hill was both challenging and an amazing experince but very cold. The Wall like everyone else was very crowded, but with many smiley and exhausted people. We randomly bumped into a Dutch and Swiss couple who we met the previous day.

With just a day and half left in the City we have decided to make the most of it and go on the unbeaten track as well as possibly try something adventurous to eat?! Will let you know if we did when i get to Sydney.

Our next destination will be another whistle stop tour of another major city within another vast country and another 12 hour plane ride. I just hope Sydney would be half as strange and fascinating. Anyway better go as Nim has fallen asleep on the coffee shop sofa waiting for me!

**Favourite Experience - walking up the lake of the utopian summer place of the Emperor.

**Worst Experience - our bus driver deciding he wanted to cross 7 lanes without looking or indicating!

**Best quote - Big dog, like Lion, Arghhhh! - Alan decribing one of the many unique selling points of Tibet

**IPOD song most played - In my secret life - Katie Melua

NOTE - to see Beijing pictures visit www.statravelblogs.com/Nimz