It was better to find out than to suppose.

Turning up in Beijing in flip flops was definitely not the best idea I’ve had for the cold there was something from another world. Then again, it was March.

It was all a bit of a palaver trying to get to our hostel, Peking International, struggling to bat off the bogus Taxi drivers with our ever growing backpacks. However, I have never been more pleased to see a clean bed, even if it was stacked with 6 others.

As night approached, Luke and I had a quick skip round the local streets to find a night market selling an array of things to eat - sugar coated fruit, scorpions, wanton soups and even star fish all neatly skewered on wooden sticks.

After a good night’s rest and noodle soup for breakfast, we were ready to take on the enormity of The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

The Forbidden City was spectacular in design, size and presence. There are archways embellished with gold studded doors; the rooftops are incrusted in gold paint and on the joints rest figurines of dragons and warriors. The eves are painted with vivid colours - blues, greens and gold - in a complex and dizzying patterns. The walls remain a deep red, hiding bloodshed, with the occasional flecks of gold. Symmetry and geometry rules The Emperor’s City.

Further into this enchanting kingdom, is a court yard home to a bizarre collection nature’s finest: a Dragon tree with cork screw branches like witches’ nobly fingers tightens around one and other, suffocating the air within its grip; charcoal coral rocks embellish the Chinese ornaments and white cherry trees blossom in the greying light.

Back through the cobbled paths and golden doors, we strode on to Tiananmen Square, home to Mao’s dictating. Military encloses the radius, chanting, searching bags and flashing armoury scaring off what little chance there might be of another 1989 protest.

The following day, we did what all tourists do; we climbed The Great Wall of China. The ascent was steep with high rise steps and took a good 20 minutes to reach the dream; and it was fabulous. The Wall streaked across the peaks of every mountain in sight in perfect harmony as if it were a part of the burly hills itself.

Having spent the best part of two hours with our mouths open, we spend the next four minutes tobogganing down the mountainside! It was extreme with its massive drop offs and lack of fences! We were sat on a plastic mat with nothing more than a little hand brake and we were off on a metal slide. The views were pretty astonishing except I was more overwhelmed by the whole toboggan experience to really take any notice.

The following day we headed for the Temple of Heaven and stumbled into the cheapest clothes market I’ve ever come across. I bought a few bits and bobs as well as a bottle of rice wine. Now, this is no ordinary rice wine - it has a snake in it as well as some twigs and rocks (I guess to make it feel more at home). Perfect present for Dad! What I later found out was that this drink is only for men as they dip a tiger’s penis into the wine to give it some Viagra effect: perhaps not…

We trek on through and arrive at the Temple of Heaven where the emperor used the offer sacrifices and fast in order to obtain longlivity and good harvest. It’s quite unlike the other bell towers and temples we’ve seen in that it’s circular, not square.

We traipse back home and even though we’re very tired, we decided to skip the nap and head on down to the Night Market for a bug feast! First in line were the scorpions, which were actually really nice - they were salty and crunchy; it reminded me of the duck skin down at the local Chinese restaurant. I decided scorpions were enough for one night but Luke went on to try a cricket, or that’s what they called it (it didn’t look like any cricket I’d seen). He ate the head and gave it the rest to a near by tramp, who was frankly delighted.

We stayed up late with our farewell drinks and paid the price the next morning when we checked out the hostel and had no beds to rest our swimming heads. We napped on the sofa’s in the common room but consequently, we nearly missed our train and are forced to run with our backpacks on (mine is considerably larger since we left with all the shopping!). I manage to pull something in my lower back and I had to spend the next 17 hours on a hard mattress. The consolation was that it was nothing like the Indian hard sleeper - hey, we even got a duvet!

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