The day started later than planned due to jet lag and getting used to the Chinese beds - apparently they favour the concrete mattress!

Wandered around the city this morning and continued to notice that Beijing is a city of great contrasts - flashy hotels, restaurants, westernised malls are all juxtaposed with the poor on bikes rooting through rubbish to make a few extra Fen, and the run down housing of the Hutongs. It's also changed from the map we have with stuff being built and changed everywhere. The Olympics have certainly made it a good time to visit Beijing. The infrastructure has clearly improved to accommodate the visiting world and many signs are in English as well as Pinyan (the romanised version of Mandarin).

Crossing the road is still an adventure! Last night there appeared to be three rules: 1. stand at the edge of the road; 2. when there are only a few cars try and cross; 3. give up and follow a local!

We crossed Beijing on the metro to visit the pandas at the zoo. The pandas were fun but the rest of the zoo was depressing and rather out-dated.

Starting to find our hotel from different directions - our mental map is being filled in and we're starting to feel located.

Finally, Stephen can't get that song out of his head - "There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing - that's a fact, that's a thing that we know" and he can't help thinking - Katie Mellua sometimes sings b******s!!