From Hong Kong we flew up to freeeeeeeeezing Beijing. A couple of weeks before we'd heard that the Chinese government had seeded the clouds to make it rain (so they like to meddle with nature as well as everything else), only the temperature had dropped and it snowed instead. And by the time we arrived it hadn't got any warmer... And freezing frosty weather plus Beijing's notorious smog meant that Beijing looked, well, a bit grey.

Still, the red flags in Ti'annemen Square were flying high and we spent the first few days exploring the Square, its Gates and the Forbidden City - which, judging by the number of tourists, is no longer quite so forbidden. We also visited the Olympic City and were swamped by touts trying to sell crap souvenirs of the Olympic Torch - er, I think you'll find that Torch is ours now China so get over it already. The Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium) and Water Cube (Aquatic Centre) were pretty impressive (once you got close up enough to see through the smog) but otherwise the place was pretty much like the rest of Beijing - massive, sprawling and grey.

To brighten up our day after all the grey, we decided to taste the local delicacy and classic flour pancake favourite - Peking Duck. Oh but what a disappointment! As it happens, the traditional way of eating Peking Duck is just to eat the fatty meat and fatty skin and the more fat the better. Came away feeling very sick. Yuk. Give us the shredded aromatic stuff from the local takeaway anyday.

So you might have gathered that Beijing wasn't our favourite city. Well it wasn't but the one thing that was absolutely incredible was our trip to the Great Wall. We decided against visiting those sections of the Wall that have been rebuilt to look good as new (the classic photo shot US President stylee) and instead signed up with our hostel to visit a 'secret' section of the Wall which remains unrestored. As soon as we drove away from the city, the smog lifted to reveal the most stunning blue-sky day with the ground still covered with crisp white snow. We were driven to a local village where we picked up a cute shrivelled old Chinese guy who trekked us through the snow for about an hour up to the crumbling Wall. Not a single other tourist or tout for the whole day - perfect. No doubt one of our best things we've done so far. And we later found out that some graffiti on the wall spelt out that it was illegal for tourists to be scaling that section of the Wall - made it all feel even more special!

Next stop was Shanghai via the German coastal city of Qingdao which was absolutely deserted being totally out of season (a bit like when we decided to go to Le Touquet in November...) but we spent a couple of days catching our breath and sampling their local delicacy - Tsingtao Beer.