Tianamen square is huge, and very well guarded by camera shy soldiers and armed police. All bags are X-rayed and we went through airport style security metal detectors. Frank had a word with the guards and we were waved through. The smog was thick again today, we could taste the pollution and the haze is clear in our photos. The Forbidden City covers an enormous area at the heart of Beijing and it was very crowded. We were glad Frank was with us to explain what ...

Tianamen square is huge, and very well guarded by camera shy soldiers and armed police. All bags are X-rayed and we went through airport style security metal detectors. Frank had a word with the guards and we were waved through. The smog was thick again today, we could taste the pollution and the haze is clear in our photos. The Forbidden City covers an enormous area at the heart of Beijing and it was very crowded. We were glad Frank was with us to explain what ...

We left Ros and Pete's at 8am, and were taken across Shanghai to the railway station for our train to Beijing. The high speed train cruised at 303KpH, left on the dot of 10am and rolled into Beijing South station, around 1500km away at exactly 2.55pm as promised. Frank, our guide, was waiting and whisked us off to the hotel, where we had 20 mins to check in before leaving to go to the acrobatic show. For a city which had few cars until the early eighties, it's ...

This afternoon we went to the fabric market to order suits for the wedding. The minute we entered the building we were besieged by vendors, but Pete went to a tailor he has used before. Fabric chosen, Andy & I disappeared while Pete got on with the serious business of haggling. At one point he walked away, but the tailor didn't want to lose an order for 5 suits, waistcoats, shirts and ties when she had already taken measurements for two of them. The flower...

Saturday evening and everyone was at the Bund, the old colonial waterfront on the Huangpu river. The skyscrapers in the photos are in the Lujiazui district, with three of the world's tallest skyscrapers close together near the iconic Shanghai Pearl TV mast. We went on the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel to the opposite side where the futuristic buildings are used as film sets. The ride itself was....odd! We ate dumplings at Din Tai Fung in the Shanghai World Finance ...