Day five dawned in Beijing and we were rudely turfed out of our hostel at noon when we had barely managed to get the sleep out of eyes. As we didn't have our overnight train until 9:30 we decided to have a quick peek at the Temple of Heaven way south of Tian'anmen square. The pictures have probably not done it justice but it was wonderful even though Rachelle attracted even more than the usual amount of stares and a few giggly Chinese girls who wanted their photo...

It was successful third and fourth day in Beijing… Yesterday we spent some time in the National Art Gallery and the Summer Palace separated by a very spicy but wonderful Sichuan meal.We are starting to feel a bit more comfortable though definitely getting a more 'authentic' experience involving moving to a HOSTEL and using squat toilets (that weren't even divided - yuck).We also have not (knowingly) been ripped off in the last two days, which is a great suc...

Ok, Hi everyone it is day two of our wee trip and the iron grip of jet lag is starting to loosen allowing us to chillout a bit more and appreciate the beautiful madness of Beijing. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the forbidden city which i can say with no exaggeration is the most impressive place I have ever been and I have been to St James's AND the cafe at the top of Hartside pass to give you an indication of the quality of the opposition. Seriously...

Well, we arrived in Beijing at 6am this morning and to be honest - we had a pretty rude welcome! The sky was dark and it was pissing down.Antony and I stumbled to a taxi rank and when we arrived at our hotel the cab driver charged us 5x what it said in the guide book and since we had 'chump' written all over our faces we coughed up the cash. After a multi-hour nap, we headed out into the city to get our bearings.Two Chinese students befriended us and walked with...