Hello everybody! Mrs P here, I have just read chris's blog from this morning and I may have slept in but i would like to say that it is now only half 9 in the evening and he is sparked outupstairs . . . I hope I can wake him to let me in!

Today we went to see the Summer Palace, after a few false starts and getting off at the wrong metro we found it . . .(we may have caved and had pizza hut for lunch . . . Please don't judge us . . .) It was still beautiful despite the grey haze that constantly envelops the city, we climbed up the hill on the side if the lake and got a brilliant view. There were lots of little pedloes and dragon boats - see pic - zipping about and lots of dragon flies. I took lots of pictures of the giant water lillies.

It was busy but not as rammed as the forbidden city, there was a massive storm yesterday eve so it isn't quite so sweaty today - still 30 degrees . . . But the haze blocks the sun so no sunny needed.

There were lots of old ladies selling kids toys and we saw possibly the funniest event of the trip so far - two old women having a blazing turf war row whilst still wearing plastic fake glasses, mustache and nose sets! Brilliant.

After walking round half of the lake and having our picture taken with a few tour groups . . . Why? Our feet really hurt so we made a move back to the metro. It took about an hour to travel accross the center of town back to the hotel stop - ( did you know that Beijing is the same size as Belgium!)

On the way back we popped into our local supermarket for some fruity sherry wine - our new tipple, and some noodles in a pot. Chris got a strange eggy creppe thing, it was nice though.

Tommorow were not sure what were doing yet, might check out the olympic village.

P.s Facebook isn't allowed in China! So I won't be on there for a while! Also we noticed a small history book in the shop yesterday that had blocks of text crossed out with a marker . . . Hmmm

Ta ta Mrs P