Get a nice lie in after being kept up by a hilarious Debbie chatting on all night, this girl is mental but brilliant and more of a man than me and az put together haha! Head out on the subway to visit the sunshine palace, which was the last place that the last emperor visited i think! and pick up some street food on the way which was a big pot of noodles mixed with random sauces and vegetables and peanuts for 40p :) the sunshine palace was amazing and incredibly vast, built around a huge Lake and consisting of temples and intricate walls and buildings on hillsides, with stone pathways leading everywhere. Me az smera Debbie and a random Swiss guy which joined us on the way rented a pedal boat and went all around the lake under a huge stone bridge, went to a massive stone boat built in the lake for the emperors daughter to host parties and generally floated around , dodging dragon boats and having Chinese people take pictures of us on the sly. I sat on the front of the boat completely peaceful just taking in the stunning surroundings, talking about the future with az and I don't remember the last time that i just sat smiling for no reason and felt so calm and happy. The sun was slowly setting in the foggy sky over Beijing and everything in my world was good :)

We got off the boat said goodbye to our new Swedish mate then sat at the side of the lake playing cards, chatting and generally having a laugh it was great. Jumped on a bus, tried some more random street food the got the subway back to ti'an anmen square to see it in the dark, all lit up and heaving with Chinese people. Back to dongsi s***iao station and funnily enough get some more street food before getting 6 cans of Chinese beer for 12 qwai (1pound 20) and drinking them with az smera and Debbie outside the hostel playing cards and having a giggle in the warm buzz of beijing. We've all really settled into hostel life and love being around the people and the way of life, have such a laugh back in our 8 bed dorm with 2 Italian girls and everyone else, chatting about pokemon for some strange reason, and it's weird to think that all these people from 4 different nationalities can get on so well. This would never happen in England!