Hi Folks,

It's our last day in Beijing and we'll both be sad to leave! We've been uber busy since the last entry - literally non stop...

On Wednesday we had a walk through Tianamen Square to get to the Forbidden City - which was really hot and busy! We picked up an English speaking Chinese man (tour guide of some shifty variety) called "Bob", which turned out to be a wise move as we wouldn't have had a clue without hiim! Forbidden City was huge and very impressive, such beautiful architechture and painting - the amount of detail on the buildings is amazing. We'll get some pics up hopefully soon, the internet and phone connection here has been awful.

On Thursday we went to the Summer Palace. It was a bit of a trek out of town but definately worth it. We braved the subway system - bit confusing at first but only 20p to get anywhere so worth being patient for! We had an encounter with a man on a "rickshaw" (a bike with a shelf for 2 passengers) where he implied that we were to pay more because we're big people.... ahem. Once inside the outer wall we were met by the most beautiful view - a huge lake with a large hill in the middle of it, with all kinds of beautiful palaces, temples and buildings placed on it. We spent the whole day browsing around the lovely sites and generally just taking in the scenery. In the afternoon there was a massive storm - quite different to what we're used to! We spent the rest of the day mooching around the Olympic Park... The Birds Nest is absolutely MASSIVE! The TV does it no justice, we couldn't get over the size of it.

On Friday we went to the Great Wall. Again, it was absolutely breath taking! Such lovely views and really tranquil. It's mad that these places are so close to such a busy city. The wall itself was brill, you can't get over the fact that it was built over 1000 years ago - the structure and detail is impressive! We got stuck at the top of the mountain as there was another huge storm so they stopped the cable car running back down, we didn't mind too much though (it was that or risk getting struck by lightning?!) The tour guide wasn't massively impressed with us though - we were the only two left at the top of the mountain hence being 45 mins late down... haha!

Today we had a lovely day. We walked through "real" Beijing (traditional houses, street stalls, laundry on the walls, a man selling guinea pigs on the street...etc) to the Temple of Heaven, and that it was! Again, the views were amazing - such lovely colours on all the buildings which was surrounded by a forest like park. It was really relaxing and nice just to spend a day chilling out instead of rushing around.We braved authentic chinese food today, we had a non descript meat kebab and two (possibly pork) meat skewers from a street stall, they were lush and compared to immitation western food! NIce to eat some proper meat too!!

For some reason the local hospital keep insisting on checking my (Hols) temperature through the hostel, maybe I was a bit peaky getting off the plane (It was 33c the day we landed!) It's nice to see they're actively monitoring for swine flu, maybe the UK should take a leaf out of China's book?!

The roads are mayhem - there's about 4-8 lanes of traffic each way on most roads and there's no reasonable highway code - "might is right" seems to be the way it works :) It makes crossing the roads a bit more interesting, especially as cars can still turn right on red!! (Don't worry Mums, we're fine!) There are thousands of bikes here, all as mad as the cars. There seems to be a competition for who can load there bike with the most crap possible... one man had more wood on his bike than B&Q has in stock! Another man was carrying two double glazed doors width ways on the back of his bike too.

... On the subject of bikes, today a man fell off his bike because he was concentrating so hard at staring at Pete and I walking down the road, it was hilarious! A little girl fell over a fence doing the same today too. They really are fascinated by Western people here, especially as Pete and I are a young couple - seems to be attracting a bit of attention. We've had a few pics taken but we've learn to hide around corners when we want to sit down for 5 mins now otherwise we get mobbed!

Anyhow, we have to leave for Shanghai at 5am so it's over and out from us, keep leaving messages - it's lovely to hear from you all!

Love,

Pete and Hol

xXx