We arrived in Beijing at about 9am and after mooching about and ignoring the non official scouts trying to charge ¥150 to get to our hostel, we joined the taxi queue got a taxi who took us through beijings packed wide streets to our hostel, a good 45 minute drive away.

The hostel had two warrior statues like the terra cotta ones at the door, and above a big blinking sign 'Happy Dragon Inn'. Walking in the girls spoke excellent English and uograded Jen and I for at least one night to a twin room with our own bathroom. Result! We sat down in the little restaurant bar bit for some breakfast which was really tasty, checked into our room which was nice, and decided what to do that day.

The wall was out, as was tiannenmen and the forbidden city for now. So, we went out to figure how we were going to get to shanghai, after after much further to-ing and fro-ing trying to save a few pounds here and there, we ended up getting seats overnight on the D311 for ¥311 two days later (after a horrendous moment where we realized we hadn't got our passports needed to book the tickets, we found old train tickets with our passport numbers on which seemed to be fine). 12 hours overnight on a hard seat. Hmmmm.

That done, time was ticking on. We went about on the tube which was so easy and most distances seemed to cost between ¥1-2. We consulted the book (jen's battered rough guide to china) and headed out to this little artsy alley somewhere in central Beijing. We got off the tube and walked what felt like ages to get there, but it was good when we did.

Loads of tiny shops, cafes, boutiques, food vendors lined this alley come side street on both sides and throngs of people walked its length marveling at the wares on offer. Jen and I first stopped to get a choco puff (Jen had a cappuccino puff) which was a big choux bun filled with chocolate custard, delicious! We carried on and realized we needed some food so stopped off in this lovely little restaurant for a snack.

That done, and after consulting the book again, we realized we weren't too far from some lakes and little sites so we thought we'd have a mosey on down there and see what was what.

Once there it was beautiful, the crowded polluted and packed roads disappeared as we turned down a side track and the lake stretched out before us. The usual cyclos were on offer as we're rental bikes, but Jen and I chose the on foot option and strolled in the sun looking out over the lake with its pedalo drivers, avoiding the cyclists and just enjoying being out of the hustle and bustle of this mammoth city.

We stopped as the sun was going down at a rooftop bar and had a beer as we watched the world go by downstairs, and then walked back along the other side of the lake, adorned with bars, music venues and shops, back to the subway station and back home to the hostel. Jenny made a final toilet stop before we got I the tube (literally her 20th in about 5 hours) and off we went.

Tired and not up to too much, we got back, used the Internet (which had facey-b! Jen immediately made me invite Gian so she could perve at some point), had some dinner in the hostel and went to bed.