I have just arrived in the Academy, but efore I say anything about that, I may as well fill you in about what I have been getting up to since I left the UK on Wednesday. The last 3 days have been spent living it up in Beijing. We arrived on Thursday morning and made our way over to our hotel (watching our 1st taxi driver being arrested and our 2nd one ripping us off in the process). We proceeded to unpack a little, had a quick nap because I got bugg@r all sleep on the plane (Matt got loads, but denies it vehemently for some reason)... Then we headed out for a walk around 'downtown Beijing', and finally for a bite to eat. This was a mistake. We were soon surrounded by 7 curious waitresses who found our attempts to communicate hilarious. The food that we ended up with was not what we tried to order, and cr@p to boot. The next morning, having woken up at both 2:30 and 5:30, we went down for an extortionate hotel breakfast, and then departed on a bus to see the ming tombs and the Great Wall of China. Ming Tombs were pretty, ironically, but seeing as the great wall is just a wall (beit a very long one) I failed to appreciate what was so great about it.... joking aside, it was a fairly splendid edifice. However, spending an hour and a half was certainly too long and because it is built over such a hilly environment, it is very difficult to appreciate just how long and impressive it is. Once we had returned from the trip (with a visit to a 'Jade' factory thrown in, where Matt almost managed to buy the world's tackiest pair of cuff links) we showered and headed out for dinner again, feeling sure that it couldnt turn out as bad as the night before. It did, and we were in McDonalds by 10:00pm! The restaurant we headed to originally decided to spice up our order by changing beef for slimy eel and spicy sausage for fish head and fish bone soup..... Our last day in Beijing was an interesting one to say the least. After a very modest lie in, we took a cab to The Forbidden City. This was a truly impressive palace and we very nearly got lost several times in the 9,999(and a half?!) rooms. Following this, we headed for Tiannanmen Square. In the process of asking for directions, we met Jack and 'Ling?'. He offered to take us there because he was showing it to Ling anyway. Once there, he gave us the full breakdown of other surrounding attractions and then showed us to a nearby street full of the hustle and bustle of the Beijing that we are accustomed to seeing in the movies. Once he had helped Matt check out the largest pharmacy in Beijing (Matt is doing medicine) he then had the 'brainwave' of taking us all for the Emporer's Tea Ceremony. I will cut this tale a little short because it is still a slightly raw nerve.... but basically Matt and I ended up with a bill of 400 pounds for a couple of cups of tea and some green tea to take home (not enough to justify 400 pounds!!!). Jack ended up with a bill double mine because he decided to buy us all a tea set! A lovely gesture, but one that didnt seem so helpful when I was packing later that night. Once we had gotten over the initial shock of the bill and persuaded ourselves that we had not just been the victims of some vicious con, we headed across town for a spot of Peking Duck, which was certainly worth every last Yuan. Without a minutes sleep that night, we then caught a plane to Changchun in the morning and were escorted to the Si Ping Martial Arts Academy. More to follow shortly...