Today we are off to get our last fix of fake shopping. I had done my research beforehand and found the best Beijing Market to go to. Got there quite late and it was absolutely hectic with as many shoppers as shop keepers (and each shop has at least 4 even though their shops are no more than 8 foot square!!) Anyway to cut it short Beijing fake shopping is a huge disappointment compared to Shanghai as the choice is very limited and the quality is nowhere near as go...

Today we are off to a Beijing Theme Park Nick has found on the internet. I am a bit apprehensive as they do not seem to have any Health & Safety in place in China so am thinking it could be a ploy by Nick to have me knocked off!!! Although why he would want to do that I do not know as he often says how much he has enjoyed spending the last eight months with me day and night. Anyway it is once again absolutely freezing out so I have upped the anti and am now w...

Today we are off to Tian An Men Square and the good news is it is not snowing, the bad news is it is blowing a gale and is about -5. I was pleased the snow had stopped as getting about has been quite hazardous. The snow hazard however has now been replaced by the new hazard of people sweeping up leaves they are everywhere and so are their brushes!! Now for some reason the Chinese do not like leaves on the pavements and today there are a lot of leaves due to the h...

Today is Nicks birthday, I have arranged for us to stay in a nice hotel for a few days to celebrate (because I know this is what Nick really wants for his birthday - me I am happy staying in hostels!!) Now some of you will know that it is a tradition to put up the Xmas tree on Nicks birthday so I arranged with the hotel to get a tree put up in the lobby for him and I have too say they have done quite a good job! Spent the afternoon in the hotel gym and pool and t...

Today we are once again braving the sub zero temparatures and have a whole day of outdoor sightseeing at the Birds Nest Olympic Stadium. Now ordinarily it is probably very easy to see this stadium from the tube station. Today however it is snowing again and there is a heavy fog over the city. We therefore wander off in the wrong direction initially but eventually stumble across the stadium when we are about 50 metres away. Had a wander round and then spent about ...