Morning all,

Just back from a trip to the great wall and will post pics and blog later on that.

We are set to leave Beijing tonight after 6 days here and have really enjoyed it here. We stayed in a Hostel right in the heart of the city, close to all the major sites, but still managed to get lost on a daily basis!

Beijing has felt more relaxing and we haven't stood out so much here, although we do feel like local celebs, when visiting Tiananmen Sq we have frequently been asked to pose for photos, one time we were embarrassed as a tour group surrounded us for a piccy and they all cheered as we stood nervously next to a middle aged lady for the pic!

Tiananmen Sq is huge and we squeezed in at sunset to watch the lowering of the flag, the soldiers seemed to be doing a monty python walk!

We have learnt to avoid scammers and been given a tourist menu at 4x the locals price, we were brave and walked out (after drinking our cheap beer 1st!).

The Forbidden Kingdom was impressive too, we thought it'd be a let down, wrong again. See if you can spot the elderly lady with the Panda hat on - crazy Yanks!

Most of the hutongs are very traditional and either due for bulldozing or if the locals are lucky being spruced up. One in particular was a famous street which was filled with cosy and funky bars and arty shops, felt like a Spitalfield or Camden of Beijing.

Lots more including the Bell and Drum towers, Imperial Parks and the Great Staff at the Hostel, especially Wang Pei, who was always smiling and chatty. The nightlife was fairly tame, tho we did venture to Hua Hai which is a bar area set around a lake, bit like being in Turkey for the staff trying to get you in their bars, we went in the two out of 50+ that didn't hassle!

Bye for now, gotta get ourselves ready for the overnight train to Xi'an, 12 hrs on a hard sleeper!

A&Tx