Day 1

The nearly 11 hour flight was made better by an excellent film called Empire of the Sun- a story of expat's living in Shanghai during WW2. Barnes was more interested in the lasagne that was served! Also the views from my window seat over the mountains of Mongolia and Northern China were amazing (don't worry- you will see from the photos!) Terminal 3 was equally amazing- apparently the largest in the world. As Barnes said "'wow- its mahoosive'" you have to get a train between seperate parts. There is a funny smell in the air of Beijing- a bit like an eggy fart.....

Applied for a Vietnamese visa....here we were offered a lift in a blacked out car by a South African chap called Cristo and his driver "charles." Took us nearly twice as long to get home! Haribo and coca cola for dinner- too tired to leave the room. Chinese television is humourous...a bit like watching banzai! Good English channel geared to tourists. And oh yeah, it's really cold... -7C with winds that are FREEZING!

Day 2

The day started with a trip to a local bakery for breakfast where we sampled some Chinese cuisine including a ham cheese and tuna eggy bread sandwich. This set us up for the day as we walked in the freezing cold to Tianenmen square, stopping on our way in a little shop to haggle over the price of gloves and Barnes'silly (but cute) hat. (See pictures!) We took an accidental detour through Changpu River Park- very beautiful and absolutely worth it. The square was interesting for its historical past and the x ray detector in the subway, but looked much like any other square!

We then walked to the Forbidden City, or should I say through the Forbidden City. The place is huge with some interesting rooms and flabagasting scale. The city ends in a secluded garden of rocks and pegodas. Here we saw an art student's work. Beautiful work but hard to carry for 6 months! The exit of the city is overshadowed by a large pegoda on a hill. Walked around the wide frozen moat on way to collect visa's. Ate chinese 'pot noddle" for dinner, Barnes had Ritz crackers! Tomorrow off to the Olympic Stadium and Sunday a 7 mile hike on the Great Wall.

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