"Great Walls, Forbidden Cities, Acrobatics and Olympics"

Another overnight train (we're getting into training ready for the Vodka train) and we arrived in Beijing. Mer was definitely getting used to the sleeper thing but this time we had a 'snorer' and I resisted the huge temptation to suffocate him in the middle of the night but as a result only got a bit of sleep.

Things didn't start too smoothly when we got to the train station as there was nobody there to meet us. We waited and waited but still after 45 mins no sign. I even bought a phone card but it was too early at the office for an answer until an hour had passed and I finally woke a very apologetic man up. Eventually a very flustered tour guide turned up led us outside but couldn't find the driver so we had to wait another half an hour for that.....tempers were short!

'as 'Hoover' observed "It sure is one big wall" - observant these Yanks!'

After a couple of hours chilling at the hotel we went for a wander and found the 'Silk Market' which strangely has more to do with fake designer goods and less to do with silk. Great fun was had haggling away from the ridiculous starting level down to bargain level but of course though we bought nothing????!!

After that we were picked up by a new tour guide who explained that the previous one had been replaced and who also gave us a bottle of wine to apologise. He took us on a tour of 'The Temple of Heaven' which is actually a series of temples in a park. It has all been restored well and the sun was out (something we never expected in Beijing) so it was all very pretty. It used to be used as the place the emperors came to have huge celebrations and certainly had that kind of scale.

In the evening it was off to the Beijing opera which compared to all the others we have seen was a bit disappointing but still entertaining.

Next day we sorted out our Mongolian Visa's early and headed off for the triple whammy of Tianeman Square, Forbidden City and Summer Palace. The sun was out and cracking the flags so it turned out to be a very sweaty affair. All the sights were impressive despite much renovation work being undertaken to get ready for the Olympics. There was a good story about the Summer Palace as well with one of the empresses diverting funds headed for the Chinese Navy into extending the palace. She did this just before the Sino-Japanese war where the Chinese Navy was quickly wiped out so clearly it wasn't the brightest move. She was a bit of a dragon lady though so not only survived this but went on to live to a ripe 79 which was good for 1906.

The next day and it was off to the Great Wall. We went to a less visited area to avoid the hoards of tourists and it worked. The place was quiet apart from some Summer School trips and us. We had a good trek around and as 'Hoover' remarked "It sure is one big wall", observant these Yanks. Every few hundred yards there was a watchtower and the wall winds its way along mountain ridges as far as you can see so all in all it is very, very impressive. In a tourist style we got a sledge to come back down the hill which was good fun as well.

In the evening it was off to the 'Beijing Acrobats'. Now normally you would think that this kind of stuff was probably a bit young for us but I have to say that it was huge fun. These guys can do stuff with their bodies that you can't quite believe and appear to have no fear. Some of the guys were young as well (probably 14ish) but they start training at age 6 so they were well prepared. The highlight for me was the guy who stacked chairs on top of each other until they got to just below the roof and used the last chair as a 30m high up platform to twist and turn upside down on one hand.......nuts!

Saturday was our last day on one tour and we joined up with our new tour group to start 'The Vodka Train'. We have moved from 4 star to 2 star but this means that we have internet for the price of buttons not gold coins and laundry facilities that cost less than the price of the clothes i.e. much more to our liking. Our group seems really nice with 3 Aussies, 3 Brits and 1 American. Some of them are using the train as a way to start to get to Europe and travel further and it seems strange that some of these guys are just starting their big adventures as we are ending ours. One thing though is that the tour has an age limit of 35 so not only am I the oldest person in the group (just) but the next 3 weeks could be one big party..... So bring on Mongolia and let the fun commence.