Well after a rocky start the last couple of days have been fairly succsessful. I have been exploring the sights with em. We've managed to cover Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City now. I would post some of my photos but this computer is gay and refuses to admit my camera is plugged in, so nevermind. Eating has been the most 'interesting' thing we've really done so far in that clearly we don't speak chinese, but unfortunately many places don't have anything resembling an english translated menu so we are just pointing at something on the menu pretty much at random. We've worked out the symbols for steamed rice, so always order that to make sure we will eat something (some people do mainly live off rice so I don't see why we can't). Luckily so far we have liked most of what we ordered. Hot and sour soup though is not so tasty. Having cunninly used em's guide book to try and crack the code that is the chinese language we've worked out which symbols mean noodles, chicken, beef, fry (doesn't sound like a useful word but proved the basis for us working out the meat symbols by process of elimination) and possibly pork, though maybe not, so at least we're no longer completely clueless. Tonight may well be beijing/peking duck night and I look forward to it :D It's not long now until we meet the vodkatrain group and set off on the train and I can't wait to see mongolia and russia!