Today we visited the site of some of the finest Anglo/Franco looting and burning as witnessed by Harry Flashman in Flashman and the Dragon. The Summer Palace has since been rebuilt and the Chinese have embraced world trade (the reluctance to trade with the English and French and allow an ambassador in Beijing was the cause for the vandalism). Anyway, the Summer Palace is truly amazing and I would say it's better than the Forbidden City (although it was sunny today rather than raining and we were not jet lagged). We climbed up to one of the pagodas overlooking the lake before taking a boat across the water.

Yet another taxi ride and we were at the Birds Nest Olympic stadium which we were only able to view from 300 metres behind a wire fence on the side of a dual carriageway. Hopefully we can get a bit closer than the A12 to our stadiums during the Stratford (i mean London) Olympics.

This evening we attended a Kung Fu show at the Red Theatre (I am sure Tim Rice and Ben Elton produced/wrote it). I was expecting something much more violent but instead we got something more akin to the Lion King. Anyway, dinner was on the 24hr food street where much to my delight but Lil's displeasure we had "ring o fire" chilli prawns.