Day 2 in Beijing - got bus to Forbidden City, saw lots of Ming and Qing stuff but we started getting a bit bored and it was full of tourists (mostly Chinese). Garden was nice. Maybe we were just hungry and also bored of walking round as everything is on such a big scale. Anyway then we bought enough food for 2 days (in preparation for tomorrow too) at the back street outlet that we went to yesterday and they were pissing themselves (metaphorically, although we di...

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 frighten...