Travelled up to Beijing from Shanghai on an overnight train, which took 13.5 hours. Let's just say that was interesting! Went to the Summer Palace the next day, which was really good. Apparantly a place where emperors went for holidays or something and it over looks a lake which was really nice.

On the second day in Beijing I met my tour group who are all lovely. We went to the great wall which was amazing! Was freezing but hot after climbing a million steps to get to the top. Was worth it for the views, the wall is built over the top of loads of mountains. We got a toboggan down from the top which was really fun. Next day went to the forbidden city (I would tell you all the history but all I can remember is that an emperors lived there and the public weren't allowed in).

On one of the evenings, went to the night market to look at all the weird food and ate a scorpion, which wasn't great, even though it had been deep fried. Good to try though.

Got another overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an with the group, which was loads better than the last train and is actually quite fun when your not the only foreign person.

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