Morning everyone,

Just a quick update of the last few days. Three days ago the weather cleared and we had bright blue sky so we went to Jingshan park which provides great views over the forbidden city. Its a short climb up the hill but it was soo hot that it felt like climbing everest.

We had decided to leave this until a day when the smog cleared as the visability was so bad. Which meant the view was awesome but it was very crowded on the top. We managed to squeeze ourselves a space in the shade and took in the sights.

Afterwards we left by the west exit and went to Beihai park (aka the winter palace). It makes a huge difference to the other locations we've been as comparatively its quite quiet. And at a third of the price of a lot of the other attractions very reasonable. The palace is on the middle of an island so there are some lovely views. We wandered through, the place is once again huge, and it seems like we've been walking for years.

On the way out claire spots a tourist info and asks about post offices. We get directions and the bus number and strike out for it. Unfortunately things are a lot further apart here so by the time we arrive it is already shut.

On a plus side after a lot of wandering (they don't have a WHSmiths) we find a box and somewhere to have sushi.

Two days ago we decided that we had had enough of temples so we went to the zoo, possibly the only place I'm likely to see giant pandas on this trip. Like everything its big and in this case hard to get to. Its on the metro but not one of the main lines so it took almost an hour to reach.

We enjoyed the zoo, lots of lions and tigers and had to laugh when we started to see foxes, ducks and swans from the UK. The Panda enclosure was suitably popular and I starting to get used to the chinese need to see everything now. They litterally throw themselves to the front of the queue as though if they didn't the pandas might not be there. I don't know where they think they are going to go? It doesn't matter to us though as now I can see over most of their heads which is quite funny.

We didn't have time to go to the aquarium as the zoo took all our time - pity as its suposed to be the largest indoor aquarium in the world.

After the zoo we joined the rest of Beijing - packed like sardines in the metro home. Now that is cosy. Thank god they have good aircon. And finished the night in another restaurant choosing from the pictures and hoping what we ordered was edible as the "english" translations mean as little to me as the chinese - real pity the camera battery was dead as these were classic.

Yesterday less exciting - we spent the day in the hotel planning the next bit of the trip, three more weeks in china does not seem long enough, especially when every train seems to take between 12 and 26 hours to get anywhere. Oh well we'll have to just make do.

Off to the temple of heaven and some clothes markets today.

Bye

Mr P