It was seriously humid when we first got to Beijing, but the humidity was soon broken by a monsoon. We decided to go to an acrobatics show in the hope the rain would calm down. In the show they had all sorts going on - balancing stacks of glasses on a lady's nose, chucking trilbys about and packing 8 guys on motorbikes inside one of those meshed spheres. It was a pretty ropey performance but luckily nothing serious happened! Shortly after we had our first taste of Peking duck which went down a treat, though the geordie prefers the stuff he gets in Newcastle's chinatown.

We headed up to the Great Wall the next morning and unfortunately it was still chucking it down and really misty in the hills. Luckily about an hour later it began to clear. After this, we drove back to the centre, went to Tian'anmen square and onto a market selling madness. The most popular item on sale being scorpion, starfish and squid on sticks. Then we went home, played some cards and went to a club to wrap up the tour. The first place we went to was full of dance offs, so I tuned into our old days on the batchwood podiums and fit right in.

Next morning we said our goodbye's as half the trans team were leaving Beijing, a few of us had decided to stay together in Beijing so headed over to our hostel. We packed in a load of touristy sites, my favourites being the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven, which is full of retired locals dancing in sync, playing badminton and practicing tai chi. The weather was really good for the rest of our time in Beijing, even being able to catch patches of blue through the layer of pollution! Somewhere in the middle of the sites I went for a massage and opted for the 'traditional Chinese' one. After a few minutes of scraping her knuckles on the top of my head she asked if I'd prefer the aromatherapy one that cost a fair bit more but actually involved muscle rather than digs to the skull. Seemed a cheeky money-making scheme with no subtelty but I went with it, and it was quite an improvement on the 'traditional'!

We'd accummulated quite a big group for our last night in beijing. An Israeli guy we'd met knew promotors of the club we were going to and sorted free entry/drinks all night for everyone. It was quite a chunk of the teams last one in Beijing/China so was a wicked night and great way to wrap it up!