Beijing, I loved Beijing. There was loads to see and do so I stayed for 7 nights instead of the 5 i intended to stay for. Me and Chris arrived in Beijing on the 2nd of September at 0530 after travelling for god knows how long. We got the bus from just inside the Chinese border as there was no space on the Ulaan Bataar - Beijing trains. Chris thought it would bea good idea to get friendly with an American couple who spoke Chinese but they turned out to be complete peckers who couldn't handle their drink (surprise surprise) so we ditched them as soon as we got to Beijing. She was oneof the most annoying people I've ever met and he was a complete puss!! Moving on......... We walked to the Jade Hostel near the Forbidden City, checked in and had my first proper shower for about a week!! We then found a cheap and cheerful back ally dim sum shop that sold 16 dumplings for around 35p!! Needless to say this was the place I had breakfast most days. We then spent the rest of the day wandering around Wangfujing Street. In the evening we treated ourselves to some Beijing Duck with a few other people from the hotel like hostel. Far to posh for the likes of me and Chris!! The next day Me Chris and Paul thought it would be a good idea to hire out bikes and ride to the Summer Palace which was a million miles away from where we were staying. That was our intention anyway. After riding around the back streets of Beijing, a cheeky trip to KFC and a lot of cycling along the highways of Beijing we decided we were not going to find the Summer Palace and headed back to the city centre via a bar. All in all we did about 60km. In the evening we ate from the night market but I didn't try any of the snake, starfish, crickets, scorpions etc that were on offer as my stomach was feeling a bit dodgy. The next day it was my birthday. During the day me Chris and Paul went to the Underground City, which was built during the cold war, The Great Hall of the People (wasn't that great to be honest) and then me and Chris walked around the Forbidden City. In the evening we met up with Aisling and Annie the 2 Paddies we had the unfortunate pleasure of sharing a coupe with from Irkutsk to Ulaan Bataar :) We went for a meal and then proceeded to get smashed. After getting in about 8 the next day was a complete write off for me. On the Wednesday me and Chris got up quite early to go and see another dead bloke. This time it was Chairman Mao who was not quite as pastey as Lenin but he still needed to get out a bit more. After that grim experience Chris left for Hanoi and I made my way to Beijing train station to purchase my ticket to Pingyao. I think I saw the Temple of Heaven that day as well but I can't be too sure. On Thursday I went to the Great Wall of China. I decided to go to the part that most tourist didn't go to. It involved a 10km walk up and down some really steep hills from Jinshanling to Simatai. It was hard and a lot of sweating was done but it was well worth it as the views were amazing. I was pretty cream crackered in the evening so I had few beers and had an early one. The next 2 days I just wandered about trying to find some arm pit spay and seeing a few more sights.