Hi, Well we have finally made it to the last destination on our trip - Beijing. It has been a bit of a shock to the system as we left Hong Kong on a sunny day with a scorching temperature of 38 degrees and landed in Beijing on a cold and wet day where the temperature was only 19 degrees! The weather has been pretty rubbish since we got here as a monsoon has hit other parts of China. It has got a bit warmer but we have yet to see the sun and it is very very foggy. Any tan that I had achieved has already faded which is a shame. China in general despite the weather has been a bit of a shock.The lovely chinese food we get at home has little in common with the food we are getting here, and after a few descriptive things on the menu such as tendon and entrails have made me slightly quesy! English is definitely not widely spoken here so we are relying on a lot of sign language and pointing- and this is the capital so I cant imagine how difficult the rest of china would be if you didn't speak the language. There are lots of tourists here but they all seem to be other Chinese people rather than white people so we have been treated in a slightly pop starish fashion. Little kids are fascinated by us and all say hello. I even had one the other day grab my hand and start walking down the street hand in hand with me- was very cute! We have also been in quite a few people's photos, some ask and some just take the pic slyly! We have been fairly busy since we have been here and i think i have definitely had my fill of monuments and bad weather so am looking forward to getting home now. The first day we went to the Beijing underground city which was very strange. It was built in the 60s when China was worried about a nucleur attack from Russia. It spreads all the way under the city and even has a cinema and a silk factory - very random! Then we headed off to see part of the okd city wall which was interesting. After this we braved the Silk market which despite its name sells everything under the sun! I thought Thai markets were good until i went to this market - it was amazing! and as everything is made in China there are loads of fakes to get and the quality is very good. We had to be very restrained to not buy loads and loads! The experience though was a bit stressful as everywhere you went the stall holders shouted ' Lady Lady' at you. You daren't look at anything, Caroline at one point was kidnapped after looking at some jeans. They grabbed my arm but i managed to escape but they wouldn't let Caroline away from the stall until she bought them - they even had a blanket held up around her for her to try on the jeans! She eventually escaped but not for about half an hour- and she didn't even buy the jeans! Yesterday was a rubbish weather day but we headed off to Tiananmen Square which is a massive massive square with a big picture of Mao who founded the Peoples republic of China. We wondered round there then went to the Peoples Hall and we are not sure what that was all about as it was all in Chinese. Then we went to the Lama temple which was very intersting. Yesterday evening we went to a Chinese Acrobatic show which was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The acrobats were all mini and were the most bendy people I have ever seen! There was lots of plate spinning, jumping through hoops, flips, balancing things on people's head and tight rope walking. I spent the whole time with either my mouth open or saying ' Wow' - it was great! Today we went to the Forbidden City which is the part where all the important people used to live during the old dynasties. It was very interesting but there were stupid amounts of people there. Tomorrow we are off to the Great wall which should be good - fingers crossed for no rain! xx