Last day in Beijing. Lovely visit to the summer palace where the emperor used to spend the warmer months. Basically a massive lake with lots of pretty buildings, temples and bridges surrounding it. Started with a popcorn breakfast and a stroll, then a spot of pedalo'ing, a yummy chocolate magnum, followed by a walk up a lot of (pretty) steps to the tower of buddhist incense (a statue with 4 heads and 8 arms if I remember correctly). We stopped at the temple of h...

What a great wall! We didn't quite trek the full 6000km but had a lovely walk along it for a few hours. Picnic'd with a great view of the wall snaking into the distance. The photo is of me in my best Kung Fu pose on the wall (hopefully my skills should improve after our lesson we are due to have later on in the trip!) Had a dinner of rice with, effectively, gummy bears served in a pineapple! Then went to an acrobatics show which was amazing. There was lots of b...

Visited Tian'anmen sq and the forbidden city today. The square was pretty big, and very windy! The city/palace was awesome. The roofs are so ornate, as are the lion statues. Learnt about the Emperor and his 3000 concubines - ladies from which he chose 1 each night, to play scrabble with ;) I witnessed my first encounter of the non-existent Chinese nappy- instead toddlers have a slit in their trousers and just squat wherever they are when nature calls! No.2's inc...

So have just been out for a Peking duck dinner, which was nice though I preferred the fried sweetcorn! The tour group consists of 2 other brits, 1 spaniard, 1 canadian, 1 kiwi and 1 scandanavian. Plus our chinese guide Dragon! Off to the forbidden city and tian'anmen square tomorrow, followed by a Kung Fu show in the evening. I have already enquired as to whether you can hug the pandas in Chengdu, and the answer is yes (for an additional fee)...result! Checked ...