Morning everyone,

Its another sweaty day in China.

Two days ago we went to the temple of heaven. It was really impressive, probably one of the best places we had been in Beijing. I liked the fact that we got to enjoy the historic side of the city without the thousands of people. It was still pretty busy but not by Beijing standards.

Also in stark contrast to the rest of the sites we've seen it was round!!! We spent a good few hours wandering through the parks, enjoying the quiet and the sights. Looking over people's shoulders as they gambled at cards along the long corridor - I'm not sure what game they were playing and I was too afraid to ask incase they tried to get me to play. We appeared in a number of family shots; some people were quiet sly about it other times I turned round to see a huge lense aimed right at me.

We left in the early afternoon to see the silk and pearl markets - they sell silk and pearls and ipads, mobiles, rolexs, clothes and just about anything else.

It was a bit off putting to literally get grabbed by people and sold at until you moved away from their stall and the next person started. We had a go at bartering - we were probably rubbish at it but it was a bit of fun and we didn't spend a lot. Claire got a few souveniers and I got a couple of t-shirts (as i'd ruined some earlier in the trip).

By the end you got used to it and just ignored the sellers unless you saw something you wanted. We're going to have look around the "antiques" market today. Now that should be funny - as 99% of them are meant to be fakes - I can't wait to see what prices they quote.

Yesterday we went on a tour - as it is not meant to be very easy to get to the wall and ming tombs (especially when they are north of the city and we are right down in the south).

So we had an early start. Met our tour guide and headed for what we believed was our coach. It turned out our tour was a tour of 3 which was a pleasant surprise. We arrived at the wall ahead of a lot of the tours. The badalang stretch which we visited is very mountanous not at all like the epicly wide flat stretches I expected. So after spending an hour scalling the stepest steps ever we were about 500m higher than we started. There were some amazing views and lots of photos taken.

However on the way down we met the rest of the groups going up so it took longer to descend the wall than climb it. I'm so glad we got there early and allthough we only had two hours here it was spectacular. I'm sure we could have spent longer but it was a hot day and by the time we got back to the coach I was litterally dripping.

On the way to the Ming tombs we stopped at a jade "museum". Basically a lady explaining how jade is found and processed before being whisked to the shop and followed round until you bought something. It was all pretty expensive and heavy so unsurprisingly we didn't.

After that we visited the changalang ming tomb. Apparently the largest one but as yet not open to the public (the tomb bit anyway) so I found this a bit of an anticliamx. Oh well can't win them all.

That took us to lunch which was some set menu affair at a restaurant on the way - you could tell it was part of the tour route as everyone else in the restaurant was speaking english. Funny really but it was free and quite nice so I'm not complaining.

In the afternoon we were taken to see a silk "museum", the outside of the olympic village, a tea "house" and had a foot massage. Apart from the olympic village, which we managed to get our driver to pull over so we could photo, it was all abit of a demonstration followed by buy, buy, buy. The best one being the tibettan doctor who offered claire some medicine for 90 pounds per bottle and said she needed two. I nearly laughed at him. I don't know how much they think we earn but that was crazy.

On the whole the trip was really good. I loved the wall, the demonstations were pretty interesting (especially how large silk worms get), the foot massage was good and the food was nice. We didn't spend any money at the shops which probably annoyed the vendors/driver and it was bit of a shame how many there were. We read the blurb and expected one maybe two stops for souveniers but four was bit over the top.

Best bit of the day - just how excited one chinese family got when we agreed to appear in a photo with their kids.

Anyway batteries nearly dead on the laptop so must go.

Mr P