Greetings from Beijing

Just thought i would let you know what we have been up to.....

we arrived on the sunday at about 9.40 after a brilliant flight with BA. basically the whole plane was empty so we could sprawl out over 3/4 seats! it was awesome. food on the plane was pretty sweet as well.

Well we arrived and got on the bus to take us to Beijing Central station where we were enticed to get on a rickshaw (or however it is spelt). The cheekly little chinese chappy told us that it would cost us 50, which we assumed to be RMB (yuan), which would have been a bargain, unfortunatley not only did he take us to the wrong place, he proceeded to charge us 50 US which was a fortune compared to the prices we have been paying for the rest.

We then preceeded to walk around beijing in the pouring rain for approximately 3 hours before we found our hostel, it is in a hutong which is like a local street, really quite dirty and really local. its not until you get into the hostel itself that you realise that its not all that bad...well its not great either. We spent the afternoon getting our barings and got some food in the hostel which was pretty good. We then went to a Kung Fu show in the evening that was ok. The climax was a guy lying down on swords, then placing anails on a board on top of his chest and then a person on top of that. The person on the top then got a concrete block smashed over his stomach! it looked pretty painful and i managed to get the whole thing on video. Whilst all this was happening the other kung fu dudes were smashing metal poles over there heads! I'm not too sure what the whole point of that was but it was pretty damn cool

Today however we visited Tianimin Square and the Temple of Heaven which were both pretty incredible.

We seem to be having a little difficultly getting around as nobody speaks any english, some people just refuse us straight out. We tried to buy a ticket for the metro and were just waved away and the next customer was told to cue up.....a little strange i though....must be the skin head! hahaha

We went out to dinner at a peking duck restaurant where we were taught how to eat duck properly. It was gorgeous food with alot of extras. Food is cheap when you eat at the local restaurants (less than a pound) but this place was about 10 pound each! which wasn't too bad to say that we got half a duck and about 5 other dishes (including shark soup), desert, and jasmin tea and beers

In summary China so far has been both amazing and real crappy at the same time. The locals tend to spit, and stare alot, some even take your photo!

Off to the great wall tomorrow for a trek....10k in 30C heat! NICE!

Take Care

Missing you all

Jonathon