Saturday 5th May
Up and out early, no coffee with Mr Wheat I'm afraid. Our train left at 10:20 and it took just over 4 hours travelling at 302kph. The trains tilt and glide, the smoothest of flights, so to speak. It smells of food alot. Then after a long time of people's breath...and farts - not mine!

It was warm with hazy sunshine, around 18- 20c, but not nearly as polluted as Shanghai, or even as bad as we expected.

Transfer at the railyway station to the metro and out following the hostel's directions to our 'Hutong', which is the name of the traditional alleways where people live in Beijing. Checked-in, nice bar, they had tours on offer, up to the second floor to our dorm (and the rooftop). An 8 bed dorm. We were the last in, so a full dorm now. There were two Chinese girls in the dorm already, we swapped 'Hi's'. I dosed up on some tablets, as now I had a cough, sort throat, blocked nose and rather alarmingly phlegmy - oh dear (hope you're enjoying your lunch by the way). Dinner in the hostel, a more western style menu (honey and lemon tea) and few drinks before an early night, well 10pm. We were both knackered. Although once we had settled down another dorm mate came in and began to organise his bags (ready to leave in the morning). It took him nearly an hour - ok - and he wasn't that quiet about it - ok - and then once he'd got into bed he opened and began to eat a LARGE bag of crisps (!) Really slowly (!) We heard every fecking crunch!

Another dorm mate arrived, went to bed. I was in full nose blowing/ mouth breathing flow at this stage, beautiful. Frustrated Frank and I messaged each other so to let off steam about our "Dorito Eating Dorm Dunce". An older woman then came in - "Mary Berry" - who turned up the already nosiey air conditioning to full whack. All this was blended with the rooftop lounge which was next door.
' hashtag hostel life'.

Sunday 6th May
Frustrated, aching and sick I couldn't take anymore. Tears fell, I'm sad to say, as I said to Frank "I just can't do this" - sleeping in dorms is tough going, especaily when you're ill. The travelling was fine, but you can't guarantee a good night's kip. We dressed and asked Candice on reception for a private room - one would be avaliable at 11am. Phew. We breakfasted and went to find the route to Tianenmen Square, a 30 minute walk, coming back by 11am to switch rooms. More tablets - I wasn't going to miss this big one in Beijing - back out to the Square, bringing our passports with us (you need these to get passed security and to buy your tickets to get in). Before we left, Candice warned us about the touts and scams. There was also a massive poster listing the various scams on the walls. A good job really as once we were getting our bearings, trying to locate the Forbidden City entrance, a lady apporached to help with the map and where we were. She asked us where we're from. Said she was an art student... Then, of course,

"You can go through this east entrance it's much quicker ('not many people are going through it though' I noticed) and my fellow students have an exhibition there of our work ('A-ha'!) you can have a look and you can buy some pictures if you like?" She was very gentle about it I must say.

"No thank you, we'll just do the Forbidden City."

"This way is much faster" (the main entrance was moving fast enough!).

"No we want to get our photographs from the front thanks." Which was true we did and (scam aside) who wants photos of a ruddy side entrance?! Anyway, selfies taken we step under the Chairman Mao portrait and through to the Forbidden City. It's deep red in colour and commanding in its magnitude. We revelled in the hot sun at this worldly historic site. Trees line the inner area and the crowds push on to get through to the ticket gate. Through and further in is a massive court/parade area with a marble decoration as you head up the stairs to the main temple. The whole city, gardens and all, is 189 acres and has a mote around it. We took our time, as to explore the whole site could take up a whole day. Tired as we were we did rather well in seeing as much as possible. Up and down levels, in and out of vast temples and expansive courtyards.

On exiting a few hours later we rewarded ourselves with an ice cream! (Actually that was my second as there was a stall inside too.) Then a walk back in the direction of the hostel - not without more touts and scammers. Drivers of tuk-tuk type vehicles (small motorbikes with passenger seat) constantly riding up alongside you -

"Hello? Hello? Taxi? Taxi? Where you going?" Seemingly the scam is they bring you off to a tea/silk/or other shop and get you to buy something at an inflated price. Or they inflate their price, halfway through your journey, you don't agree to pay and they drop you off in the middle of nowhere. With that in the backs of our minds we shook our head and waved our hands at any offers. There were also those trees that made us cough and wheeze lining the path. Ah well, we didn't have far to go, but we were getting very tired.

We stopped off in a restaurant and had Beef Noodles. Wow, they were fresh dough noodles and the broth was delicious. Pity we were served by Mrs. Grumpy (we wouldn't buy her 300ml bottles of beer for ¥50). With noodles eaten could make it back to the hostel now.

Another honey and lemon tea, a doze in the room - my cold was pretty bad by this stage (phlegmy and rough). Then down to the bar again for some drinks/tea (¥15 for 500ml) and fries. The bar is decorated with world flag bunting, left over christmas decorations and loads of wooden Nut Crackers, which also seem to be a big thing across China. We've seen them in a lot of shop windows and bars. There was quite a buzz in there and later in the evening a big crowd turned up, having booked out the area  in the corner. The staff were pushed to keep up with keeping tabs on the drinks.

We agreed that I would spend the next day resting in order to get better and booked to do 'The Wall' on Tuesday.