Hi all,

We've found an internet cafe that actually seems to work!!

Tomorrow's our last day in Beijing (leaving by train to Hong Kong at midday) so thought we'd tell you what we'd been up to.

We've been staying in a hostel right in the centre of the city- very basic and not much to do there but convenient.

On the first whole day we decided to go look at the Olympic Stadiums (weren't sure if paralympics were still on or had even started). When we got there we found out it was day 2, and loads of touts were outside offering tickets. We did try to buy tickets properly but apparently they're only sold online or at the Bank of China, so we bought tout ones!! They were still only 210 Yuan (about 18 pounds)- it will be intersting to see how much more they are in England.

The Birdnest was amazing from inside- huge! Everyone was really friendly, and was very exciting. Especially when Chinese athletes came out as the crowd went mad. We saw a British girl win silver in the 5000m wheelchair race, but Peter says its being re run- there was a huge crash in the second to last lap- was awful to see, medics came out and couple of athletes were taken out on stretchers so hope it was nothing serious.

We went to the Great Wall for one day- decided to take local bus rather than tour as really expensive (and neither of us like following guides around!) It was about an hour from Beijing- completely flat land and the mountains suddenly appeared. The wall was spectacular- so steep when climbing up and down though! We reckon we walked about 7km- half of which was crowded with tourists and the other half had very few people which was much better.

Just been to the Forbidden City- where the emperors of China used to live- and normal people weren't allowed. It's a huge area of ancient Chinese buildings. The buildings were amazing, but we were rubbish and got bored because everything looked the same!!

xx