Hello Guys!

Thought we'd start to write our blog now that we have been here a couple of weeks! It's 12.50pm here and its humid and rainy :(

I'll start from the beginning......We arrived in Beijing on 26 April and guess what it was rainy and cold! We took a taxi from the airport, the taxi driver didn't speak English and was a crazy driver...we were doing 30mph on the motor way while he spoke on his phone trying to find where oiur hotel was! We then stopped on the hard shoulder...we we're both crapping ourselves! Eventually we found the hotel which was at the centre of Beijing.

Beijing is a really strange city...I thought it would be really cosmopolitan and built up. It has lots of buildings but it is very poor and parts of it are underdeveloped. Although, the main highstreets are full of expensive designer shops (which we avoided!). We went to a little market with lots of souvenirs, and we found some stalls that sold Seahorses and Scorpians to eat!!! And people were eating then...mad!

27th April - Beijing
We met up with our tour group today....everyone is English weeey!! and two guys from Soton too! (Kate you went to school with one of them...Gary is his name! can't remember his last name) How weird is that! Everyone is really nice, and the tour leader, Leah is great...she's so small and cute! We went for our first group meal....and it was AMAZING! The chinese food over here is sooo delicious! And the meal was only 3 pound! =D

28th April - Beijing
We visited the Great Wall of China. The veiws and scenery was amazing!! The weather was really freaky, first it was cold then hot and then it snowed, and then snowed while it was hot! We climbed up some huge steps right to a high point where we could look out over the wall, and on our way down, we got to go on a tobogan ride all the way to the bottom! It was so fun, Lee kept off the breaks and went flying down!

29th - Beijing
Today we went to a place called Tiennemen Square and The Forbidden City (Temple) It was pretty but really cold and windy, (glad I brought that fleece mum!) which ruined it a bit as we were too conerned about keeping out of the wind!
In the afternoon we went to the 2008 Olympic Stadium (The Bird's Nest) This was pretty impressive, we got to go inside and walk around. It was massive, although, I thought it looked bigger on tv than in real life! For dinner we had duck pancakes, they were amazing!

30 April - Beijing
We went to the Temple of Heaven today. Now you won't be able to picture what I'm about to say......we had to get there early morning because every morning around the gardens of the temple all the OLD chinese people come and and start to exercise on climbing frames...along railings...doing the splits...headstands...yoga....dancing...playing cards...singing!!! It was an absolute sight, we were so shocked and could not stop laughing! I will post a video up soon =) After this crazy sight, we then went to the Summer Palace. This was so beautiful, the palace/temple was on a hill side, which we climbed up and had a great view of the surrounding area. There was also a masisve man made lake which was so picturesque with the mountains and hills behind the lake.
That night we took the night train to Shanghai, it was a lot more comfortable than expected, and we got to sleep in the same compartments as the rest of the group so we played some cards, and had some drinks.

Lots more to write about for the next places, but have to go now...will also post some pics up when we reach Hong Kong! :)

Love Chaz and Lee xxx