I arrived in Beijing last tuesday. City hot and humid with a lot of hustle and bustle - everyone seems to be in a rush to get somewhere. I didn't do much that day as I was quite jet lagged, but I was very brave and went out to dinner on my own! Noone here speaks english, not even the basics, but I eventually found a restaurant with pictures on the menu, so just pointed! I had some sort of noodle soup - couldn't identify the meat, but it was very nice! Went back to hostel and got talking to an American guy in the bar who was going to the Olympic Stadium the next day, so we met in the morning and went together. Luckily he had already been here a while, so he kind of knew how to use the subway, but we did get lost and ended up walking miles when we got off. The stadium (Birds Nest) doesn't look anywhere near finished - they haven't even finished the roads and hotels around it!! Met the tour group on the Wednesday evening. Only 7 of us in the group - 2 young British guys about 19, an Australian couple and another couple (one American and one British) and the tour leader. We went out for dinner that night to a restaurant down loads of backstreets and Peter our tour leader ordered loads of different food - all scrummy!! On the Thursday some of us went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven Park. We also popped into the Pearle market on the way back to the hotel which was an experience! We then went out to a night food market offering all sorts including scorpions, silk worms and even sea horses on sticks!! On Friday we went to the Summer Palace, yet again getting lost on the public bus system, but all had fun trying to navigate around the city. In the evening we went to watch the Chinese Acrobats before heading to a restaurant for Peking Duck - a speciality in Beijing - loved it! On saturday we headed off to the Great Wall of China at about 7am. We did a 10km walk along the wall. It was really hard work - loads of steps and rubble to work through, but well worth it!!!! We had perfect weather, it was sunny, but a slight breeze to keep us slightly cool. We got to the hostel we were staying in along the wall at about 6ish, so a few of us got a beer in and climbed up a bit further and drank our beer watching the sun set behind the wall - it was amazing!