Day 1 Ok so we have arrived at last!

the flight was abit of a nightmare, kris had some fat dickhead infront of her who put his seat back as soon as we took off, the flight to singapore is 10 hours so he was well out of order. I told him to put his seat up which he did and when i went to the toilet and come back he had put it back down again! and he had 2 empty seats next to him so there was no need for it, so i moved to another seat and kris sat where i was sitting so we could both watch the movies. We got to Singapore and i watched Liverpool play everton. then we had a 5 hour wait to the next flight. Then we had a 6 hour flight to Beijing and the tvs were playing up. So we werent that impressed by Singapore air! 

We got picked up at the airport by our hostel and the first thing we noticed was how cold it was minus 4!!!

I was really blown away by the drive into town couldnt believe that i was in China, the hostel is in a little alley way but its nice and clean. we had a little explore around where we are staying, we walked through all the chinese little alley ways and we finally found a main road and on it was a mcdonalds so kris was happy!! the only weird thing was everyone really stares at you as they are not used to seeing white faces, i just smile and wave and they smile and wave back, we dont feel threatened at all they are just interested

We had to have a sleep in the afternoon because we were abit jet lagged as we had both been up for about 30 hours!

Near our hostel theres a temple and a drum tower which we went too and saw a show which was quite cool

We went to a really nice restaurant for dinner it was busy with the locals so it thought it must be good, at first there were no english menus so we were abit worried i thought it was going to be abit like dinner russian roulette you never know what you ordering but a really helpful waitress found us one with pictures aswell so that helped. I ordered Peking Duck (well i had to didnt i) and kris just ordered rice so we could share our meals. When it came over i started using my chopsticks and nearly all the people in the restraurant and the waitresses started to watch me which was abit weird but quite funny and then one of the waitresses came over and made me a peking duck pancake now thats what i call service. i think they thought i didnt know what i was doing. The meal was really nice and it came to about a fiver!

We got some tickets for the chinese acrobatic show from the hostel, one of the lads who works there took us in a taxi though as we wouldnt have a clue how to tell the driver where to go.

The show was absolutly amazing ive seen some really good circus acts and acrobatics before but nothing was nowhere near this. all the acrobats are qite young ranging from about 7 to 17 and they are so talented me and kris were just sitting there in silence because we were blown away by soe of the stuff these kids pulled off. we were well impressed.

Day 2

today we walked to th Forbidden City. We must of walked around it for about 5 hours and we still didnt see half of it. it was really amazing and beautiful and we were able to see where the Chinese emperors used to live. After the Forbidden City we went to tiananmen square which was something ive wanted to do from the beginning when we booked the ticket. We we were stared at loads again and all the little kids wave and point, there was one young girl who i thought must be in love with me, she just didnt stop staing and smiling at me for ages then she came over and sat next too me and kris. I felt abit uncomfortable! it must be my good looks the girls cant help it and all the men stare at kris some of them have proberly never seen a blonde girl before. I wanted to go to Chairmen Mao's mausoleum were you can see his body but its closed this time of year.

after this we went to a market where kris had her first experience of haggling for a hat, and i just couldnt be bovered to have a look at anything its just too much hassle you cant look at anything without getting mobbed.

Just having quiet night tonight, wanted to put all my pics on but it didnt work hopefully its the computer not the camera!

Day 3

We went to Beijing Zoo today. We went to the Lion enclosure first and we just so shocked how bad the conditions where they were they were all kept indoors in really small cages most of them were just lying there but there was one leopard just pacing up and down it was horrible to watch. After this we saw a few other animals and then went to to see the elephants again they were inside! when we went in the smell just hit you there was no fresh air or anything to interest the elephants, one was even chained to the bars and you could see that it was trying to undo it with its trunk! it was really upsetting after seeing this i didnt want to see anything else so we left. i dont know why this place is still open it wass just so cruel!

we went to the aquarium, which was really good and really amazing they had fish i have never seen or heard of before and the biggest koy carp i have ever seen! they also have a massive shark tank which sometimes if your lucky you can dive in. i was well up for it but when i got to the tank the desk was closed, fuming.

we got a taxi to the Lama Temple when we got there it was closed which was abit crap and then we got a taxi back to the hostel and the taxi driver kept on talking to me in chinese i didnt have a clue what he was saying!

Tonight we went back to the same resturant as the first night, we had sweet and sour pork with noodles  and egg fried rice. Kris didnt like the pork but i thought it was alright. I used the chopsticks again (im getting abit of a pro now) but everyone still stared!

Off to great wall of china tomorrow!

Day 4

Ok so have booked ourselves on a tour of the great wall of china. When we got picked up it was just us in the tour bus so we had our own driver and tour guide... how cool is that?

The first place we went to s the sacred road, a part of the ming tombs. When the emperor died he would be carried down this road and then through a gate too his tomb, so in chinese beliefs this is the road to heaven. we were told that the reasons the tombs are here is because of fen shui its the best place in the whole of china to be buried! it was quite interesting here but it felt like we were rushed through which was abit annoying.

When we left the Ming tombs we were taking to a jade factory, as soon as the tour guide said where we were going i just thought we were on one of them tours, which rush you through all the interesting places and take you to a crappy shop where your get hasseled until you buy something.

When we got to the Jade factory it was quite interesting watching how skillfull the people who worked there were. and we saw some really nice pieces but there was no chance we could afford to buy anything. All the people in the factory were really nice and some could speak some english and they werent bovered that we didnt buy anything, one of them even showed us 2 fake pieces and 2 real and asked us to guess which one was which. we got it right straight away which she was impressed about and then she taught us how to spot fakes on the street stalls so we werent ripped off.

After the factory we were taken to the Great Wall of China!! it took about an hour to get there and we were driving on really bad roads through all little rural villiages of china, at one point i looked out the window and watched an old man butchering a cow on the path with everyone around him waiting for their piece of steak or whatever. so it was quite an interesting drive.

We went to Mutianyu a part of the wall most tours dont go to as its abit further out the reason we chose this is because what we had read about the wall, all said that most tours go to Badaling so its really crowed and has loads of people hasseling you and selling crap.

When we got there we got a cable car to the top and then the tour guide just left us alone to do what we wanted. It was so amazing up there i have been looking forward to it for so long and i was finally up there walking on a piece of history. we walked about for an hour then had abreak and a bag of crisps theres not many people who can say they have had a packed lunch on the great wall of china! it was quite misty up there so you couldnt really see the mountains that clearly but we could see the wall zig zagging its way along for miles and miles.

On our way back a chinese couple came over to us and asked if they could have a photo because i was really hansome and kris was very pretty, we thought it was really funny and posed with them for a few snaps.

We were up there for 2 and abit hours then we got the cable car back down, at the bottom there were loads of people selling things and just waiting fro us at the bottom so it was quite hard getting through them all. I bought a little red book with Chairmen Mao on the front because it looked good and was quite different, she started off at 190yen! abit more then a tenner i got her down to 40 i bet she still made loads off me but its only cost me 2 quid。

From here we were taking to a really nice resturant where the meal was included in the tour price we both got loads, and it was all really nice. Near the resturant was a place where they made the chinese vases, it was amazing how they are made and are painted 6 times until smooth.

After this we went past where the olympic villiage is going to be built its abit of a building site at the moment but we saw where the swimming pool is and the bike track.

Then we went to one of the biggest silk factories in Beijing where we watched how they get the silk off the coccoon, then the tour guide told me you can eat the insect inside, so i did! it tasted very bitter but worth the look on kris' face! we then helped to make a silk blanket by stretching the silk sheets. when we went to the factories shop we saw so many lovely blankets and covers, we were really tempted and if we werent traveling we would of bought some stuff, then we saw the clothes ad i woanted to buy my niece sian some silk pjs and maybe a pair for me!! but i didnt in the end.

so that was the end of our tour, it has been our best day in Beijing and the tour cost us 15 pound and we got all that!

Day 5

We were told that Chairmen Mao's mausoleum was open today so we went down to tianemen square again, there was a massive queue but we finally got it, there were so many flowers in there, then we wnt into anothe room where Chairmen Mao's body is. He is in a glass box under a soviet union flag and his face looks like it has been down by a make up artist from hollywood i think it was a fake ive seen better wax works in madame tussards!! but you never know it could of been him, it definatly was a strange experience.

from here we went to a park in the centre of Beijing where we saw a temple with a massive budda and we also saw some chinese people doing tai chi, and a chinese band having a good sing song with people dancing so it was quite good.

We then went to a taoist temple which had loads of side rooms off the temple with statues in depicting the different stages of heaven and hell it was very strange.

we then went to Mcdonalds just for some chips on the way back to the hostel as we left kris then realised she didnt have her purse, she either lost it or it was stolen out of her pocket! thats all we need! it had quite abit of money in it, her driving licence and her bank card! luckily she has got a credit card so not the end of the world!

Now we off to the train station for a 12 hour overnight journey to Shanghai.

will tell you all about it soon.