Well it's a bit difficult writing a blog after all this time of being back and working, but if you know us you know we don't like to not complete stuff, and hopefully one day we'll have a chance to look back and read all this.

On arriving in Beijing after the overnight train, we were treated to our first conversation with a stranger since we made it to China, although after just getting off the overnight train at the time I think we would have preferred to be left alone! Still, we made the best of it.

Beijing, formerly Peking, is the capital of the People's Republic of China, is one of the four municipalities of the PRC, and is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. 17 million people live in Beijing, and it is China's second largest city after Shanghai.

Beijing was one of the highlights of China for us, as there are many historical and cultural things to see and do; the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall to mention just a few.

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.

Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 square metres. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

Since 1924, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artefacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum's former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War.

The Forbidden City is huge and took us a full day to get around. You enter opposite Tiananmen Square (which is home to Chairman Mao's embalmed body inside the Mao Zedong Mausoluem, though this was shut when we tried to visit) and are greeted by a huge picture of Chairman Mao on the wall of the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Getting a picture infront of this was very difficult without hundreds of Chinese people being in your photo, though we managed it by agreeing to let Allison be in everybody else's pictures (sometimes having a light-skinned girlfriend comes in handy!).

We got in as early as possible as thousands of visitors swarm to it every day, so to have any chance of getting decent pictures you need to be up at the crack of dawn, but the palace is so huge it's overwhelming. It's also extremely hot and humid, and even though we didn't see the sun the whole time we were in Beijing (due to the ridiculous smog) you felt worn out fom the heat!

Another important building in Beijing is the Summer Palace or Yihe Yuan (which translates to "Gardens of Nurtured Harmony"). It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy, into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In its compact 70,000 square meters of building space is found a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.

The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750 (Reign Year 15 of Emperor Qianlong). Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks--during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (with the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan.

In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value."

We got to the Summer Palace by taxi and made our way around the whole palace and grounds (although as with many things in China getting prepared for the Olympics, certain buildings were shut).

The grounds were very nice and there were musicians and acts scattered around. Walking across the 17-arch bridge to the island in the middle of the lake, we took the boat across to the other side to see the Marble Boat, the Long Corridor (with fantastic paintings all along the ceilings) and the Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion, to name but a few of the sights.

When we left however our day got a bit more exciting! We went off with the first taxi driver who approached us, not realising that he was a luxury taxi driver (well the leather seats were a bit of a giveaway).

It wasn't until our fare was up to about 70 Renminbi that I spotted it, and although thats only about 7 pounds, we hadn't gone very far, we were travellers, and also we could live on about 20 pounds a day in China, so we didn't want to give it to a taxi driver for a fare that was only about 5 pounds on the way down there!

After much arguing and protesting that he hadn't been straight with us (not easy as his English was as good as our Chinese!), we got dropped off at an undergrouond station and begrudgingly handed over a 100 Renminbi note and waited for our change. At this point things went badly wrong as he must have done a switch somehow, as he started screaming at us that we had given him a fake note.

This was not possible as we had taken all our notes from the bank, so again an argument ensued. At this point I told Allison to get out the car so we could get ready to make our escape, as we only had about 50 Renminbi on us (apart from this 100 note) and I couldn't be sure at this point if the fake 100 Renminbi note was ours or not. I grabbed the 100 back, threw the 50 at him and jumped out leaving the door open and we legged it to the tube station.

Running down the stairs our hearts were pumping as we really didn't fancy getting arrested in China, but we got through the gates and went to the end of the platform and jumped on the first train that came. Of course the first train was going the wrong way and we had to go back passed the station, and being the only white people within miles of this place it wasn't like we didn't stand out.

Eventually we got back to the city centre, now more annoyed than anything as this bloke had probably taken our 100 Renminbi note, given us a fake one, and then kept our 50 too! He probably hadn't even bothered chasing us!

Anyway we decided to try to spend the cash to redeem our pride and cash, but as they have such a big problem with fake notes in China, everyone had a note checker and we were refused everywhere we went. At this point we were thinking maybe the bank had dispensed a dodgy note, but asking around in the hostel people didn't think that was true (and even if it was, the bank was closed for the weekend and we were leaving bafore it opened again). Eventually we got rid of it in a bar and risked bad karma. At the end of the day we felt justified after someone had ripped us off!

After all the excitement we also visited the Lama Temple that afternoon, which is also known as the "Palace of Peace and Harmony Lama Temple" or the "Yonghe Lamasery", and is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. It is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artworks of the temple combine Han Chinese and Tibetan styles.

While in Beijing we also visited the Beijing Acrobats and the Chinese Opera, the latter being a bit hard work. It's fun for a while but we wish we'd taken ear plugs, as there's a lot of crashing of symbols and other indescribable niose. The acrobats on the other hand are amazing. None of them look old enough to be out of school, yet have unbelievable strength and agility. Definitely one of the best things we saw in China.

Another thing Beijing is known for is the Ming Dynasty Tombs. The Ming Dynasty Tombs are 50 kilometers north of Beijing at a specially selected site. The site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle(1402 - 1424), who moved the capital of China from Nanjing to the present location of northwest Beijing. The Ming tombs of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty were located on the southern slope of Mount Taishou (originally Mount Huangtu). He is credited with envisioning the layout of the ancient city of Beijing as well as a number of landmarks and monuments located therein. After the construction of the Imperial Palace (the Forbidden City) in 1420, the Yongle Emperor selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum.

From the Yongle Emperor onwards, 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area. The tombs of the first two Ming Emperors are located near Nanjing (the capital city during their reigns). Emperor Jingtai was also not buried here as the Emperor Tianshun had denied Jingtai an imperial burial but was instead buried west of Beijing. The last Chongzhen Emperor who hanged himself in April, 1644 was the last to be buried here, named Si Lung by the Qing emperor but on a much smaller scale than his predecessors.

During the Ming dynasty, the tombs were off limits to commoners but in 1644 Li Zicheng's army ransacked and set many of the tombs on fire before advancing and capturing Beijing in April of that year.

The entire tomb site is surrounded by a wall, and a seven kilometer road named the "Spirit Way" leads into the complex which is one of the finest preserved pieces of 15th century Chinese Art and architecture. The front gate of the complex is a large, three-arched gateway, painted red, and called the "Great Red Gate".

At present, three tombs are open to the public: Chang Ling, the largest; Ding Ling, whose underground palace has been excavated; and Zhao Ling. There have been no excavations since 1989, but plans for new archeological research and further opening of tombs have circulated.

The Ming Tombs were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in August 2003.

We visited the Chang Ling Tomb and part of the Sacred Way, a path flanked by many Chinese statues which was really cool. This was part of a day trip from Beijing, which also included a trip to Badaling, part of the Great Wall of China.

Badaling is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately 50 miles northwest of Beijing city in Yanging County. The portion of the wall running through the site was built during the Ming Dynasty, along with a military outpost reflecting the location's strategic importance.

The portion of the wall at Badaling has undergone heavy restoration, and in 1957 it was the first section of the wall to open to tourists. Now visited annually by millions, the immediate area has seen significant development, including hotels, restaurants, and a cable car. The recently completed Badaling Expressway connects Badaling with Beijing city.

It was here that President Richard Nixon and his wife, accompanied by Vice Premier Li Xiānniàn visited in 1972, during his historic journey to China and also Badaling and the expressway were the site of the finishing circuit of the Urban Road Cycling Challenge Course in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Laps of the circuit passed through gates in the wall.

Arriving at the wall our guides were temporarily apprehended by the police, as there was something wrong with their papers. This was a little worrying as we thought we may not get to see the wall, but after questioning us about where we bought the tour from they let us visit the wall while they sorted it all out. I think in the end they released our guides and they were able to drive us back to Beijing, but what was going on we have no idea!

The Great Wall is without doubt one of the most amazing sites we have ever seen. It was built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of successive dynasties.

Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC. The most famous is the wall built between 220-200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; little of it remains; it was much farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total. At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.

Climbing to the highest point of Badaling you can see the wall snaking over hills and mountains for miles. It's such a beautiful sight that it makes you want to walk the whole thing, though much of it we were told is in disrepair, as local villagers nearby the wall used to take stone from the wall to build their own villages over centuries past. With so many different ruling dynasties over the centuries, China has probably lost many things of historical importance through destruction.

In fact the part of the wall we visited looked extremely new and has been heavily restored, so we wondered how much of the original wall was left, but all the same it was a wonderful sight and we stayed up there as long as possible to soak it all in (as well as the sun and blue sky, which we saw very little of in Chinese cities).

Eventually we joined our dodgy tour guides and journeyed back to Beijing, before catching our penultimate flight to our last stop, India.

China was one of the more difficult parts of our journey, language and culture being so different. Sometimes the people appeared rude (we won't miss the constant spitting everywhere and non-stop staring at us), but in hindsight China has been such a closed country to outside influences that people are jjust wary of Westerners, and it's such a big country and historically very poor, so many of them would never have seen a white or black person before!

It does have many amazing sights though and although it may be a while before we return (mainly though because we saw a lot of the stuff we wanted to see), we hope to return one day.