The last day or so has been a bit of a blur. We left our little hostel yesterday morning and the cab took about an hour to get us to our new hotel. Saw some amazing (modern) buildings on the way. They really have a flair for design here! The new place is really nice; better than I actually expected. Our room is about three times the size of our last one and has everything laid on, including free internet and a TV with 100 channels (97 of which are Chinese!) The location isn't terrific but we found a little shop just down the street where we can buy beer and water etc. We met up with some of our fellow tour members and they were all English. Had a lunch with them and then relaxed for a while until we met up again for dinner with the whole group. It turns out that we are the only Australians on the tour!! The only other antipodeans are a kiwi couple, farmers from Rotorua! All of the remainder are pommies! Anyway we all seem to be getting on ok, which is the main thing. We had a couple of drinks in the lobby bar with a few other group members after dinner and then retired for bed fairly early as usual!

Had breakfast this morning in the 2nd floor dining room and it was really excellent. An enormous range of stuff, both western and Chinese. We then met up with the group at 08:30am for an initial briefing where we learnt the basics of travel in China from Grace, our tour leader. She is really sweet and very efficient. At 09:30am we left on the bus to visit the Temple of Heaven. On the bus we met our local guide, Richard. He is a real character as it turns out and unbelievably knowledgeable about Chinese history. We spent the morning at the Temple of Heaven which is an amazing place. The thing that gets to you here is the span of history: I recall when Sue and I visited Egypt being awestruck by the antiquity of the pyramids and the tombs! But what has surprised me is that the history of the Chinese civilization stretches back just as far! The fascinating difference is that their builders used wood as their main building material and, for obvious reasons, the ancient Egyptians used stone. You will see photos of the Temple of Heaven and the associated buildings in the album so I won't say too much here other than to say that any photos just can't possibly do it justice. It is truly beautiful and unbelievably enormous. The idea of symmetry, of the ying and the yang, of balance, is fundamental to almost every aspect of Chinese life and has been for centuries. Much of the architecture and artistic design reflects this. Richard, our guide was absolutely fantastic with his descriptions of the religion, philosophy and history of his people and where these things fit in relation to what we saw.

Our first full tour lunch was at a restaurant where we sat at a table which had a huge lazy susan in the middle upon which we were served a seemingly unending procession of dishes. We all got one tiny glass and were asked to place that on the lazy susan if we required a beer, the first one of which is complimentary with every meal. Needless to say, it didn't last more than 30 seconds. Luckily, I have found a fellow beer drinker in the form of a Yorkie whom I shared a round of Tsing Taos (local beer) with. The price is a lot higher than at the hostel however, but still reasonable compared to home. Around $2 for a stubby equivalent served in a restaurant was not too bad. The food was ok, but I wouldn't rave. Anyone who has eaten Chinese (most of you!?) would be reasonably at home with what was served.

After lunch we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace. I won't say too much about this other than to say it was incredibly large and we walked an incredibly long way!!!! I could really bore you with exclamation marks but there isn't much point. The scale of what has been built is just staggering. Tiananmen square held 1,000,000 people back in 1989. I can see how! But that is only one part of the story: on leaving the square through the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) we entered the Forbidden City (forbidden to everyone other than the emperor and his entourage) and this place truly was city-sized! We went through one enormous square containing fantastic 16/17th century buildings, only to the pass through another gate into yet another. And then on through yet another, and so on for approximately 9 gates I think! We walked for literally miles. I took 138 photos. But don't worry, I will only put 137 up in the album! All the way we would stop every so often and listen to Richard regale us with more history or philosophy.

We finally emerged at around 4:30pm and by the time we made it to our bus and drove to the restaurant it was close to 5:30pm. Tonight's dinner was served exactly the same as before and was the best we have had on the tour so far. Unsurprisingly, everyone was fairly subdued after the day's proceedings! Upon arriving back at our hotel we had a few drinks in the lobby bar with an interesting English couple before retiring. Dad was absolutely hilarious on returning to the room as we had actually had four beers by the time we came up and he was quite sozzled! I have learnt an interesting fact about my father over the last several days that I didn't know: he is incredibly noisy, but particularly when drunk! He yawns at 100 db and talks to anything that will or won't listen to him!! Will try and upload some photos tonight before bed but not sure if it will be many as we have a very early start tomorrow (7:00am) for our visit to the Great Wall!

Catch you later.

p.s. I have finally fixed the date properly on Dad's camera!