The first night in Beijing was fairly uneventful. We stayed in the hostels bar and drank some cheap beer (40p a pint). We ventured down the road to find some Chinese food - the novelty of using chopsticks has worn off dramatically. It just seems a chore to eat, a shovel would be easier. We ended up having a beer with the Argentinians in our room that evening. We got along surprisingly well, probably as we kept quiet about certain subjects.

The next day we got up early and went to the forbidden city and Tiananmen Square. Both were really nice. When we got off the train we had bought train tickets to Xian, they misunderstood James' Chinese accent and gave him tickets to a random city. We went back to the station and exchanged the tickets. When we got back to the train we booked a trip to the Great Wall the next day. We met some Americans and a guy from Leicester who we are meeting in a few weeks in southern China and had a couple of drinks with them.

The next day we got up and walked for a few hours along the Great Wall. When we got to the top of the wall some Chinese people wanted their photo taken with me for some reason. Since we were tired we got found some food and retired to the hostel for more beer. We had new people from London in our room so we ended up going for food with them.

We went the the summer palace on the third day and walked around a massive lake during sun set. James refused to hold hands with me tho. We went back to the hostel. I was hungry so went for food with people in our room. We went to the worse restaurant ever, people actually just spat on the floor - I didn't eat anything.

On the last day we went to the temple of heavens. The smog was really bad. We got back and left a hour and a half before our train left. This turned out to not be enough time as some of the underground trains were delayed. We missed our train. We booked another one for the next day.

Not a major issue because the tickets were £10 and the night accommodation can be moved. The hard part was finding a hostel for the night as we were stuck with no where to stay. It took a couple of hours to sort.

The next day we got up and left plenty of time for the train. We decided to go cattle class and sit with the locals for the 14 hour train ride. This was a mistake. We ended up on a bench for 14 hours and the manners of people on board were nonexistent. Safe to say we had no sleep, it was an interesting experience. We are now in Xian for a few days :).