Friday was our last day to ourselves. It already felt like we'd been in Beijing for ages, and we loved it already. Will was right in saying it's the safest place in the world, despite the big roads and the number of people and the dirt, neither of us have felt uneasy at all so far. Friday morning we had a couple of hours to kill before we checked out, so we took the metro to a nearby park called Dongdan Park. This is where we first saw one of those jazzy outdoor gyms, Liam had a go on something which looked light a cross-trainer.... to be met with a lot of looks!

We've decided that Claire, with sunglasses on, doesn't attract any strange looks because of her dark hair colour, but everyone LOVES Liam because of his curls! Everyone we have spoken to can't believe it's natural, they love it! We've even had people ask to take photos of us with them - or worse than that, take photos of us eating, on trains, anywhere! We feel a bit like celebrities!

Back at Dongdan park, we met a Chinese man called Toney. He was really friendly and chatted to us for ages - even asked us to go and have a drink with him later in the afternoon at a tea shop he knew about. Liam being the streetwise one instantly remembered the warnings of tea scams in Beijing - where they invite you back for a beverage only to land you with an extortionate bill of 150 US$ or more. He gave us his email address & number and we made our excuses and left.

In the afternoon we found our 'joining point' hotel to the trip far too early, so we went to Lama temple in the afternoon. Another, smaller, complex of temples and rooms - we were ready to expect more of the same sort of atmosphere as Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven - but this place was completely different. Instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of tourists, we felt really foreign in such an obvious place of worship. Practically all of the Chinese people who were there were burning incense and praying, opening, infront of statues and emblems inside the different temples. We inevitably ended up following one or two people, noticing that they stopped to pray at every different statue - must've taken them hours to get round the complex! The temples got bigger and bigger towards the end of the park, at the very end of which was a hugggggggge room. We dared not even go in, but when we did, we stared open mouthed at a 20m (at least) wooden statue of a Budda (sp?), painted gold. It was covered in robes and flowers and fruit offerings at its feet, we have never seen anything so spectacular. No surprises that we couldn't take photos, so we bought some postcards to remember.

On the evening we met up with our group for the first time. We were really excited as it comprised of 15 people, 13 of which were Brits! The other two were ladies, one from Greece and one from Poland (but they'd both been living in London for the past 2 years, so pretty much English too). There were couples from Newcastle, Essex, Suffolk, South London and Oxford, and one bloke from Manchester. Everyone seemed really nice, and our group leader was called Bobo, from a town near Beijing. We ran through our itinerary and checked passport details etc, then went out for traditional Peking duck dinner! Hate to say it but it tasted not too different from the good Chinese restaurants at home - but still cool to see an entire duck on a plate, head and all, and to be calved up by one of the chefs.

Sarah & John, the couple from Newcastle, told us about an experience they'd had in Beijing where some guy approached them in Tian'amen Square earlier asking them if they'd like tea, only to turn out to be a scammer and demand $200 afterwards. They got away luckily by lying that they had no money on them, but as the conversation progressed it sounded more and more similar to our conversation with Toney...... and it turned out to be him too!!! He'd even given us the same 'chinese names' as he'd given Sarah & John, so I imagine we had a lucky escape!