Hello! So today we woke up at 4am because of the jet lag and just coudn't get back to sleep. So we were up and dressed and ready to go for 8am and decided to find our way around the main part of the city. We took the subway to Tiananmen Square (the central point where all the tourists go!) and when we stepped out on to the street we were completely awestruck - the area is just amazing! The Forbidden City is just so beautiful and was full of Chinese tourists - we seemed to be the only Europeans there which caused a lot of staring and laughing from the locals!! Probably Holly's hat.... but it could also be Matt's face!!!!! (Holly wrote that)

After we wandered around the square trying to take in the amazing buildings, we found a tea house and drank the most amazing Jasmine tea we've ever had - of course it was the proper Chinese tea leaves and a lovely little tea pot and cups. As we were too early for breakfast, the waiter told us that we could order 'snacks' which consisted of little mini Chinese biscuits - very small and sweet and flavoured with tea mostly. They were really nice but not really filling Matt up, so the waiter bought us his very own 'cake' to eat - this turned out to be something similar to onion bread which we found very amusing but ate it anyway and it was really good. It was his own bread too that he had bought for himself to eat in his break so it was very sweet of him to give it to us! So far we have found the people here to be gret (other than the staring and laughing openly at us mostly on the subway) most of the people here are very sweet and accommodating and keen to practise their English on us.

We will try and upload more photos of today as we got some really good ones, but the internet connection is quite slow so we only managed a few. As you can see from the photos we did upload, it was a really sunny day but FREEZING! Perhaps not as cold as the UK as it was not snowing but very chilly even still and we were out in it all day so our faces are quite red from cold! After the tea house we had a wander around 'old Beijing' (as recommended by our friendly cake providing waiter) down this amazing old street of hutongs (back streets with lots of cramped houses) and street vendors selling all sorts on the streest like corn on the cobs, sweet potatoes and satay chicken (well, we think that's what it was!). As we'd just eaten, we wandered out of the area and decided to walk half of the city down to an area called 'Silk Street' selling lots of rip off clothes and meant to be pretty good value for money. We don't want to do too much too soon as we join our tour tomorrow night and know that we will be doing the main sights with them. As we walked up the main street it reminded us of Dubai - mostly like Sheikh Zayed Road with all the skyscrapers, hotels and shopping malls dotted along the main road. It was a great walk, probably about two hours or so and we just got to take in the city a bit more and felt like we were part of it. The streets are sooooo clean here, the pavements are really clean and there are trees and plants everywhere. It's obviously been cleaned up a lot for the Olympics last year which is great and makes you feel very safe and that you are in a great city. Obviously there are going to be some run-down areas as well but so far so good!

On our way to Silk Street we passed a massive Bank of China so stopped to get some cash. We both really needed the toilet and this bank looked more like a hotel and actually had toilets inside! So we got our money and made use of the facilities - can't imagine Nationwide being so accommodating somehow?!

When we arrived at Silk Street the shops weren't really what we were expecting. There probably were some bargains to be had but we were just too tired to look at them and all the stall owners were shouting at us from every direction to buy 'cashmere sweaters' and 'paul smith shirts'. We had some lunch in a small cofee shop (a Starbucks copy!) which was overpriced! After some food we decided to head back to our hotel for an afternoon nap as we were very tired from a long day walking and still rather jetlagged. We overslept and woke up at 7pm! When we eventually woke up we ventured out and tried to find somewhere local to eat. However, the smell of all the Chinese cooking is starting to make us feel a bit sick (we're only on day 2!) and we just couldn't face anymore greasy food. Walking along the street we found a McDonalds and we are ashamed to say that we succomed to it - Matt just had a chicken burger and Holly had corn and chips!! But that's all we really wanted, we are still feeling very mixed up with time and eating so we are just eating when we feel hungry and leaving our bodies to sort it out for themselves!

The area we are staying in is called Beixinqiao and we are literally staying right near to a subway station so it's great to get around. It's kind of out of the main city and really reminds us of Queens in New York in the way it is laid out!! The subways are just so clean and easy to use and it's helping us to find our way around the city. At 20p a ride you can't really go wrong!

Tomorrow is offically the first day of our tour, although we are only meeting up with everyone in the evening (rip off really). We're really looking forward to meeting our group, it looks like there are quite a few other couples which will be nice for both of us. We intend to go and visit the Olympic city tomorrow which will be very exciting and interesting. There are still lots of posters around town from the Olympics which is good to see and everyone seems to be very proud of it. The money that it all must have cost to get the city looking so slick... we wonder if London will be quite the same in 2012?! We will try and write again tomorrow, the internet cafe is pretty cool it's only 40p for an hour so it's pretty easy to get online.

We miss everyone a lot but are starting to get adjusted now. We are really enjoying all of your e-mails and texts so please keep them coming!!! Hopefully we won't wake up at 4am tomorrow....! Lots of love, Matt and Holly xxxxx