Today we went with Marcia to the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. I wasnt that keen on the Forbidden City as it was mostly concrete with pagoda buildings, no plants, greenery or flowers so it seemed a bit bare in comparison to some of the other sights. At the exit was a garden area which was the only nice part of it. After the Forbidden City we had our free time so Gail went back to the silk market with the girls and I went to see the Olympic Park with and ...

Last night we met the group. Marcia is our tour leader who is a bit bonkers. There's an older couple Frank & Ellie, a family of 4 (the dad is a director for Gap Adventures), Georgina from Brighton, a couple from Switzerland, Joanna from Canada, Nick and Philip from USA. We went for Peking Duck dinner to get to know each other. The group seem nice, good mix. We ate masses of food, best duck pancakes I've ever had - it was lovely. We also tried Nanjing beer whi...

Hello! Today we got up at the crack of dawn to meet our guide cherry for the historical Beijing tour. Expected to be part of a big group but it was just our driver, me, Gail and our guide cherry so we were chuffed to get a private tour to ourselves. First visit was the panda garden at Beijing zoo. It was fab to see real live ones rather than on tv. Some of the baby ones are hand reared now as the adults can only look after one at a time and they were becoming e...

Hello, We got up early today to visit the Temple of Heaven. The temple is not far from the hotel so we decided to walk. We stopped at a market on the way which was fun but a bit of an eye opener as they sell everything including all bits of animal - chicken beaks & feet, pig trotters (they eat everything here). Gail was looking at scarves and when we walked away the woman was running after her shouting 'you like I give you for 50, 40 30... hey lady' We stopp...

Ni Hao! We finally made it to Beijing... I was panicking in case my bag wasn't going to make it cos I met Robbie Gallacher at Edinburgh airport. Anyone who knows Robbie will understand why I was panicking! He works for BA and thought he was trying to help by checking my bag straight through to Beijing via World Alliance. He took my flight confirmations , plugged stuff into a computer, took my bad and told me I was checked through to Hong Kong. I said 'Robbie I'...