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In the morning, we booked to go on the 'Remnant Badaling Ancient Wall' Tour (AKA Ancient wall to Secret wall day tour) for tomorrow, this cost £26 each (not a bad price).
Helen had her laundry done for 10 CNY (£1) per kg.
For breakfast, we ate at the 'Roast Duck Simple Dish' restaurant, we both shared a plate of spare ribs for 38 CNY (£3.80).
After breakfast, we went back to our hostel to book our train ticket to Xian but we were told that the tickets were all sold out. A member of staff at our reception told us to go to the West Railway Station to buy the tickets but we were unsure whether this was correct information. A guy who was staying at our hostel advised us that tickets might be still available to buy from the Railway Station.
We made our way to the Railway Station and spotted a Tourist Information desk who advised us to go to Beijing Railway Station. We made our way to the ticket counter but the staff did not speak English so we went to the ticket counter next to it which luckily had a staff who could speak some English. Also luckily there were tickets available for Xian, which cost £27 each otherwise we would have probably booked flights which would have cost us £60 each!
After buying our train tickets for Xian, we made our way to Tiannamen Square, this is a large public square in the centre of Beijing, it was clean and had lots of security. Nearby is Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall, China National Museum, Qianmen Gate and the Monument to the People's Hero.
In the afternoon, we made our way to the 'Forbidden City' (the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty). This was very impressive! It was very grand and beautiful. It was full of history and stunning architecture. We were both surprised by the size of the palace, we passed gate after gate. The highlights were: the entrance gate with a picture of General Mao, seeing thrones and coffins. The palace was very well maintained. After looking around the palace, we went into a traditional art and craft shop just outside the Forbidden City. Jay bought a traditional chinese bangle which was made out of hand carved wood and was painted with red lacquer, to get the desired effect, this product has 1,400 years of history. Helen bought a pair of butterfly earrings here.
For dinner we ate at the 'Old Beijing Hot Pot' restaurant. This is a true traditional hot pot restaurant which has been open for over a hundred years. We both shared a hot pot between us with two types of soup: hot and spicy and fragrance (Ginger and herbs). Helen found the hot and spicy soup too hot for her whilst Jay relished it. We had several dishes to cook in the hot pot, these were thin strips of raw pork, vermicelli, pork dumplings and cabbage. It was delicious.
After dinner, we went to a bar called 'Helen's bar restaurant' and had drinks. We both had a large mug of 'Yangjing' beer.
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