China first impressions: Airport shiny, rest less so. Perhaps just a big contrast to

Japan in terms of service, cleanliness and politeness and we haven't adjusted yet!

Beijing is full of massive skyscrapers but loads of them are not finished, and there

is quite a lot of dirt, pollution and rubbish everywhere. Its all a bit mad - in

Japan they form an orderly queue if theres any more than one person waiting, here

its a bit more hectic! Its a bit frightening at first to cycle - on 'wrong' side of

road, loads of traffic with no rules except beep lots and lots, but am getting the

hang of it now. Its much chepaer than Japan and we have eaten some nice stuffed

breads and who knows what from some side alleys. Also seen some grubs and what

looked like a seahorse on a stick but i wasn't feeling hungry. Considering they have

tarted it up for the Olympics its still quite dirty, and a lot harder to get around

with our limited vocabulary which so far consists of 'thank you'. Every time we

attempt Mandarin we get weird looks or just total incomprehension...