Day 1 We touched down in beijing and after collecting our baggage, we realised neither of us had wrote down any directions to our hostel and not a single taxi driver would take us either, slightly worrying! After finding a cafe with wifi we drew up directions and walked it. It was down a 'hutong' which is a traditional chinese back alley, we didnt know if this was a good thing at first as there was know english but at the same time we were in china and got what we came for! The rest of the first day we just relaxed and tried to pull ourselves together after a long, uncomfortable flight.

Day 2 So the next day we set off for Tiananmen square, which is BIG. After walking round and taking the odd picture we headed for the enlarged face of Chairman Mao. Behind him was the forbidden city, whcih was even bigger. It was our first insight into the history of China and from reading a few of the captions we were overwhelmed. We simply couldnt keep up with the different dynastys and who did what when. However it was amazing to walk round and see all the different halls and some of the buildings were beautiful. We ended with the Imperial Gardens which were nice but not as Imperial as we were expecting, either it was a nice place to relax after four hours of continous walking. We then walked up to Houhai lake which was lovely and oveflowing with restaraunts, all of which were expensive. After picking one we ate and reluctantly paid and walked back to the hostel.

Day 3 was a trip to the 'Temple of Heaven', which is essentially a huge park with a middle section through it, displaying several halls and temples. They were all worth the visit and the park was a great spot for breakfast. We walked toward the train station from here to book our next few tickets (as they can sell out 10 days in advance) and stopped of at a shopping mall, nothing was any cheaper than home so instead we found a juice bar. The flavours were mad! Choices included Lemon tea with seaweed jelly and carrot juice with pickled ginger. So i stuck with lemon and plum and eve went with grapefruit, both which were nice and refreshing in the beijing smog. Later that night we treat ourselves to a nice meal where we got pork and vegetable wraps and chicken (on the bone) in an onion sauce with rice.

Day 4 we went to the Great Wall. We noticed a French couple were also going so we stuck together as it wasnt straightforward getting there. A kind man helped us onto the right bus and after an hour he told us to get off, we had no idea what the right stop was so we obliged and then as the bus pulled away he told us we had to get in his minibus and pay to go the rest of the way. Now we knew this would happen as we were aware the bus doesnt got the whole way but the way he tricked us didnt go down well. So we got in and after another 30 mins we could see the wall. We agreed to meet the couple at the bottom and started walking. It was just how we pictured it, yet cloudy! We took lots of photos and walked as far as we could to stop for lunch where we could see the unrestored wall which was just as magnificent.We walked as far as our legs would take us in the opposite direction before heading back to the bus. After a long journey back due to traffic we were starving and ate very cheaply in our hutong getting a big bag- yes a bag, of noodles, three meat skewers and bottle of fresh beer for £1.30.

Day 5 we had a lie in as our legs were shouting for it and after getting breakfast- spiced bread roll, we headed toward the lama temple. It was typical of a Tibetian Buddhist temple where many people were praying and burning incence. The buildings were beautiful and housed many types of Buddha, the one standing out the most was the buddha carved from a single sandalwood tree which was three storeys high (a world record apparently). We then went to the Olympic Park- 4 years late but better later than never, which was enormous, a subway stop seperates the north and south enterances (The size of it also showed just how bad the smog is). It was quite run down but in better condition than we imagine Londons to be in four years time. Our stomachs rumbled so we got a tube to a recommended Peking duck restaraunt, only for it to be shut for renovation, so we chanced one next to our hostel. It was gorgeous and fairly cheap too so we went home happy.

Day 6 our last day in Beijing and visited the Summer Palace, the attractions just seem to get bigger! Bloody massive. Most of it is however a lake yet the north end is full of tremples, halls, galleries, museums and recreated streets. We seen most of them and whilst having lunch- some sandwiches we managed to knock up, we became local celebrities, At least 10 photos were taken of us by chinese tourists who walked by. We moved onto a few more buildings and then after spending the full day there we caught the tube to the night market. Again on a huge scale in downtown where designer shops stood next boutique hotels, a full street was filled side by side with stalls selling everything from starfish skewers to pig trotter soup, not forgetting chicken heart dumplings. We decided on the crab dumplings which were lovely and a plate of spicy noodles, Feeling full we went back to pack for the train.