Decided to spend the whole day today exploring the Purple mountains which are just a couple of miles to the East of the City Centre. It was a bit of a mission trying to find it, but once into the park you would not believe you were so close to a city populated by 5.6 million people!! The park is divided into 3 sections - The Ming Tombs, Linggu Temple and Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum and each section has many places of interest to visit and scenic views to enjoy. There is a toy train connecting the areas but I decided to take the more energetic option of walking between them. After I had visited all 3 I tried to walk to the mountain summit but kept getting shouted at by a guard - I couldn't quite get to the bottom of whether you needed to pay more or if you just weren't allowed up. The whole area was really lovely and I was envious of the people staying in the hostel right in the centre - not great for nightlife but definately a nice retreat. It was made all the better by the lack of people aroung. Walked back to the hostel for about 8 and had dinner and a drink there.