Where to start about Beijing, probably best to start with my mini adventure at Delhi airport. I got to the airport at the suggested three hours before departure, that was totally unneeded. This was because I was the only passenger that was checking in on the flight from Delhi to Beijing. This was something that I wasn't completely aware of untill I was boarding the plane. Luckily it turned out that there was other passengers on the plane so I wasn't the only one, but I did manage to have three seats to myself got to watch Ice Age3, got fed fairly well and then also watched another film, slept and read all in all I give Ethiopean Airways a thumbs up : )

When I arrived in Beijing I was pleasantly supprised to find everything clean and orederly. This was so refreshing from the dusty hectic world that was India. I even enjoyed my taxi ride to my hostel as the driver knew how to stick to his lane and his side of the road. It was so nice. When I arrived at my hostel I was also pleasantly supprised as I was in a dormitory and with really nice people. I ventured out with two of them to an internet cafe where I discovered that for the near future I can in no way access Facebook as it is banned in China, so I'm really sorry to everyone that I am currently ingnoring but it is not under my control.

In the morning I took the metro to the hotel that I'm staying in to be greeted by Candy on the toilet! Lol! It was so good to see her and we spent a while catching up before I let her go to sleep. This is where I took the opportunity to do my washing, some more reading and to try and get upto date with my diary that I am still behind on.

In the evening we met the rest of our group who all seam lovely. It's completely different to my last group, for one the tpur is full, everyone bar one person has come in a pair and we have three couples one of which is on their honeymoon.

We all then went out for the costomary dinner where I was shocked at the price (I think India has gone to my head) also our tour guide ordered all of the food where there was way too much, but everything was so delicious, it was such a shame to see half of it go to waste. I'm also not a big fan of the bills being completely divided up each time as there are those that are drinking more expensive beverages than others but that is a small gripe that I will have to bear.

After our very filling meal w all came back to the hotel, some of us walked back whilst the others caught a cab.

I will tell more tomorrow when I get some more internet time as I'm only limited to 15mins at the momment.

Our first day as a group was to Tianamen square and the forbidden city. Oh my god it was so busy, I think this was mainly because it was during China's national holiday. I think this is also what gave the day a bit of dampner as I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought that we would've and I'm also not used to having a guide that takes me around as I much prefer taking my own time with sight seeing. But I am really glad that I saw it.

In the evening most of the group went to watch a Kung Fu show but Candy, me and two other girls decided not to so we tried a chinese fast food place which was a bit of an experience and just chilled out in the evening.

On the 6th we all went to see the Great Wall of China. This was so amazing! I really can't put into words what this was like as it was truely breathtaking. Most of us decided to climb to the top so that we had the sense of acheivement at the end and my god although it was tough it was defintaley worth it. To start with though we went the wrong way to what our guide told us to meet Sue at the top as we were heading for the cable car not having realised they'd actually gone up on a chair lift. This did mean that we got some amazing views and some amazing photo opportunities and got to really apprecite and enjoy the wall like we should. So we walked ll the way back the other way untill we met up with everyone and spent a little more time enjoying the wall before we took the most amazing way to get off it. Wait for it... We taboggened down!!!! So much fun! We thought just walking the wall was amazing but this really topped off an amazing day. We even debated whether or not to pay to go back up and do it again but then decided against it as it was a fair bit of money.

In the evening of the great wall we all went to the night market where they sell live scorpions on sticks, starfish and silk worms. Really weird. None of us was brve enough to try anything though but it was definately an experience seeing them.

Our final day in Beijing before departing for a sleeper train to Shanghai we decided to go to the Olympic Park. I have to say the tv and photos really don't do the birds nest justice. It's really hard to capture the depth and layers of this building that make it up to truely make it look like a nest. Unfortunately although we walked all the way around the perimeter of the building I think we just got there too late to go in even though we were there around 11.30. But it was really interesting still to walk around the building and we even dicovered that the lights that light up the walk ways when it's dark are mini birds nests! Pretty cool and yes I do have a photo of me standing on top of one.

After this we quickly popped to the silk market to do a spot of shopping and grabbed something to eat before we met up with everyone else and departed for our train to Shanghai!