Well what a day!

We ended up sleeping 12 hours last night and I mean SLEEP! I've never been soo tired in my life!

We started the day the traditional Australian way, with what resembled cornflakes, but I don't think they were. There was the option for an eastern breakfast but after seeing it was fried rice, lettuce and noodles I couldn't
stomach that that early in the morning, Chris managed some noodles but ended the meal with toast and jam. The best part of their food is that they have fruit with every meal. It's very refreshing, especially in this heat.

We then met Andy, our tour guide for the day, outside the hotel and were put on the bus to begin our journey.

First stop, Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City! It quickly became apparent that even though there was this massive monument awaiting the tourists, that we were somewhat of a tourist attraction ourselves. We had to stop and pose for a few photos with Asian tourists and they kept looking at us like we were from the circus. I guess we must look pretty strange..

After learning about the 5 elements and the yin and yang we made our way through the Forbidden City to meet the last emperor's nephew who was a master at calligraphy, and for the low price of ¥600 we could buy one of his works. Needless to say, we didn't.

From there we went to the Temple of Heaven, an amazing and beautiful temple surrounded by gardens and 300 year old trees. The view at the top was amazing, although it was hazy because of the weather, it was cool to see the city surrounding such a beautiful and peaceful place.

Next stop, TCM - traditional Chinese medicine centre, where they treat people with problems with herbal medicine. We got to meet a doctor who could tell if your liver, stomach, heart, kidneys were all working properly by pressing three fingers to you wrist. Chris got the news that his kidneys are out of wack and hence why he has a bad back and gas....unlucky for me, he refused to spend $85 to get the herbal fix..maybe next time.

Next onto a traditional Chinese lunch and after braving the street in the bus and almost getting stuck in a small street with a car coming the other way we had worked up a good appetite. The food was fantastic! Over the good meal we got to know our fellow tour guests as well. A couple from Italy, a lady from New York and a uncle and niece from Brazil.

Back onto the bus and off to the Summer Palace, we stopped off at the pearl factory and learnt all about how the fresh water pearls are made. The summer palace was beautiful, unfortunately we didn't get to spend as much time as we hoped there, but getting back on the air conditioned bus was a blessing. This time we had met up with another group Andy knew, so we split into two groups that would save time on the drop off to each hotel. This is where we said goodbye to Andy and met a few new people from the other group, including an Australian from Sydney. And boy, I have to save our accent is shocking! When all you've heard for 36 hours is Chinese, Australians really have a twang! It shows you just how small the world is when he mentioned he has friends in Nundah. Small world indeed.

After getting back to our hotel exhausted and finally removing our shoes, we got to see the photos of the day. We managed to get some fantastic shots. It's still hard to believe that we are here and we keep pinching ourselves to make sure it's real.

So far, awesome holiday.