We both had a really bad nights sleep! Woke up at 4.30 and neither of us could get back to sleep, and finally got up at 6.30. The good thing was that it was really sunny, and the rain had cleared the mist. Apparently it wasn't smog in the city, it was just mist.

The worst thing about China is breakfast. They eat the same stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We went to the "bakery" around the corner, but even there they are selling buns with candy floss on top made from pork. We went back to the hotel for breakfast which was 508 Yuan each (£5). It wasn't very good at all - apart from the toast, there was cold coffee, watered down dilute orange juice, stale croissants etc. Crap breakfast.

Anyway, we met at 9am to go Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is huge, think they said the biggest in the world. Not a great deal there, so we then moved on to the Forbidden City. That's also huge with many many buildings. A lot of it has been restored, actually most sites were going through restoration for the Olympic and many have still not yet been completed. There's lots of interesting history about the Forbidden City about the Emperors and all their wives, concubines and lovers.

After that we went on an Official Hutong Tour which we booked through our tour leader. The Hutong is basically the old historic little homes and narrow streets where the older generation live. This is in the Drum tower area (around Hou Hai). We had a lovely Chinese lunch with a Hutong family. The tour cost us 160 Yuan each (£16), which seemed a little steep but apparently there are a lot of black market tours that should be avoided.

Straight from there we got a taxi to the Tibetan Lama Temple. That was a nice smaller place with many Halls. The final hall holds the tallest Buddha, made from a single piece of sandalwood and is 18 meters tall. We couldn't get pictures of the Buddhas as nobody is allowed, just pictures of the Halls.

After that we took the subway down to the Temple of Heaven. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed and nobody knew why - nobody spoke both Chinese and English. Therese tried to speak to the guard but no luck. We also bumped into 3 more traveller's 1 guy from the US and 2 Bulgarian girls, it's amazing who you meet and how everyone is in the same position so everybody helps each other. Later we found out on the news a big sports event is being held in China and they are using the Temple Of Heaven as the starting point so it was closed to get everything ready.

Right now we're on the night train to Xi'An. These things are really cramped and small, but its good fun all the same. In one narrow "room" there are 6 of us. 3 bunks on each side and no door, not even a curtain. The rooms, or holes is a better word, are called hard sleepers and they live up to their name. A Chinese lady in charge of our carriage keeps telling us to go to sleep because they turn the main lights off at 22.30, she is also the cleaner, the ticket collector etc. They play weird chinese brain washing music through the carriage and this music will be our wake up call at 7am. Unfortunately, Brian (one of the guys in our group) is on the bottom bunk snoring so we're not sure we will get much sleep tonight - time to dig the ear plugs out!