This is my first entry, how very exciting! we,ve been in China for a week so far, staying on the outskirts of Beijing. One word to sum up China? hmm.... dirty. its nasty, it really is!

So far we've done many wonderful things like use the bus! not far, i might add! We went to a place called the Lido Hotel, which is full of business rooms, and a few shops. its pretty western, meaning expensive, so we ventured out of the centre and after you leave the entrance its completely chinese wilderness! we just wandered around guessing which direction to head in, and after a while, when it started to smell too foul for us to handle, we walked back to where we started! although, we discoverd a cute little park the other day, which had cool chinese huts and statues in it. in the park we found a little art gallery, which was very odd! but we had a look anyway, and it was really interesting!

Another of our stops was to the Chinese World Trade Center. this was quite weird because so far on our trip we've only really been on the outside of Beijing, but today we ventured right into the middle! we were greeted with even more traffic, skyscrapers, and little chinese men in a hurry! We explored the levels of the trade center, which just seemed to be floors and floors of uber-designer stores. we swiftly walked past those, not wanting to look at anything becuse of our looooow budget, and found an ice skatibng rink in the basement! which was a delightful suprise! so we spent 25mins skating, which is an awful lot of exercise if u havent done anything particularly active in a while!

For lunch we went to the only restaurant we recognised: Pizza Hut! although it wasnt as nice as u would think. the chinese put fish on just about everything! not much normal food was avaliable! although it was very cheap, we had a 3course meal which cost us 60Yuan each, thats about £4. mmmmmmm cheap!

The bizarre thing about china is how much you get stared at everywhere u go! its like, just cos we're white we're circus freaks! gets really intimidating after a while. we got high-jacked by a couple of cinese ladies, who spoke english! finally! turns out they were university art teachers, and they were having a small exhibition in the building next door! so we chatted for a bit, and said we'd come and have a look! we followed her outside and when we got into a lift to level 10, started to feel that we'd been a bit too trusting of this weird chinese person we didnt know who could be taking us anywhere... but we did go into a tiny little 'classroom' with the walls plastered with chinese art which had been done by the students and teachers! it was amazing! and she told us all about how each style was done, and all the meanings behind the symbols and colours. she wrote each of our names in chinese on rice paper, for us to take home. and all the artwork was for sale. i culdnt resist, and bought a small picture which had been done by one of the students. the point of the exhibition was to sell the work to raise money to buy supplies for the students, so i figured it was for a good cause!

Yesterday we explored a small market place, and i got to barter for some stuff! yay go me! we also went into a safe, aka western looking cafe, only because it told us we could use the internet for free, which infact wasnt true! but anyway, they had these really cool teaspoons with a ducks head on the end, which i stole, cos i wanted it! while we were walking back down the street away from the cafe, i remembered that in china they still shoot people for comitting crimes, so we walked a little faster, and practically sprinted around the corner!

Today, after catching up with our emails, we plan to go back to the centre of Beijing and visit an anciet observatory! this was hannahs idea cos shes a science geek! but it sounded mildly interesting, so i said we'd go! yay!

ok, well, leave me messages/emails if u like, please!?

bye bye