Hi everyone,

Arrived safely and the airport in Beijing is one of the best I've been to. I was out of the airport within 30 minutes rucksack in hand. Hostel is very small and not many guests, but it seems quite nice and it's central

Day one was spent in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The first thing that struck me was the amount of Chinese tourists that are hitting the hotspots. Most form large groups of at least 30, all indentifiable by different colour Nike caps following around the leader holding up a flag. I'm not sure if Nike know that they have cornered this very lucrative market.

There's not too much to Tiananmen, so after the obilgatory photos I wandered into the Forbidden City and got my audio tourist guide. It's an interesting place but the sheer number of people made it difficult to savour the moment so after a couple of hours I knocked it on the head.

Then went to the Silk Market to pick up a rain jacket. I walked in this famous 5 story fake market, to find where all the western tourists were hiding out haggling over Prada handbags and Rolex watches and carting out suitcases of the stuff. Found a decent jacket and the sales technique basically involved whipping this thing on me, calling me a very handsome chap, then throwing a bottle of water over me to demonstrate it was waterproof. Sold.

Day Two, a collegue of mine from work had offered to show me a round. Julia had arranged for a car to take us to Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. This was awesome. You can hike up to the wall and get a bobsleigh or cable car down. There were still a few tourists but nothing like the day before. We spent about an hour hiking a few sections before getting the cable car down. You can't really explain the size of this thing, so I won't bother but it seems endless. We then went to the Ming Tombs and Summer Palace. I was knckered by the end of it.

Day 3 was spent with Julia and her friend Daisy and we spent the morning at the Temple of Heaven. And in the afternoon we went on a Hutong tour (Chinese alleyways), which involved calling in on this old gentleman and his lady wife to have a nose round his house. Apparently he has upto 300 people a day wandering through his place whilst he's got his feet up watching Coronation St, and this is now his living. Whilst the 3 of us were there, another tour party of about 20 rolled up that his wife looked after. We made for the exit as room was tight.

I'm booked on the overnight train the Xian tomorrow evening, so have decided to starve myself until I get on the train as I've heard the train toilets can be an experience to say the least.