Beijing..

Days 34 - 38

Arrived in Beijing around 14:30ish said goodbye to everyone and attempted to get a cab to a hostel only to find the cab driver hadn't understood a word we'd said and kept stopping to ask people if they spoke english and help translate, ended up getting out the cab and walking back to the station.. We phoned someone we'd met on the trans siberian rail and they met us and took us to their hostel which was about a 15 minute walk and right next to the forbidden city which was good..

Hostel was really nice although at first i couldn't find the showers and panicked as we'd just booked in for 4 nights ahhhhhh.. FOund them at the other end of the hallway whew.;. Also managed to do some washing at last woop woop hadn't done anything since poland so my whole bag went in and only cost me 42 yuan about 3 pound :)..

We went out for some food chinese yay, ordered a few bits think i ate a chicken foot?? tasted alright though..

The next day headed out to the forbidden city, picked up a tour quite cheap and wandered around for a while didn't really understand some of the things he was saying for example the suprmes were in the city, at night you can hear a woman creaming and something about mussolini?? Eventually got out it was a bit boring just loads of museums.. Ventured down a few back alleys and got some food, very nice again and getting cheaper only 85 yuan for all of us about 7 pound..

Also booked a trip to the great wall and olympic village..

Also got an additional person to our trip now one of the lads from the train his mates going straight to Austraia so hes gna join us and i got his mates malaria tablets things going quite well..

Tried some fake malteasers as well 'Mylikes' me did not like..

Up early the next day to go to the great wall aboput a 2 hour drive and on the way i thought she said we were stopping at a clothes factory turned out is was a vase factory (boring).. GOt to the wall and took a cable car up was really good could see so much from up there and then took a tabogan down which was in my opinion the best bit ha ha.. Pete stayed on the wall for a bit longer and me and Adelle went for some sneaky food ha ha sweet and sour chicken mmmm.. Couldn't get into the olympic village which was a bit annoying as they were reconstructing it ..

Visited a tea house called Dr Tea tried a few variations in the smallest cups ever then went back to the hostel.. There were a few people in the tv room and we ended up watching a film called trans siberian which was quite good and bits were really realistic but got a bit gory glad i watched it after getting the train..

Had a nice long lie in today then went for breakfast sausage, 2 egg, bacin, beans, hash brown and toast (real bread)mmmmm!! We then went to get our train tickets to shanghai which was suprisingly easy but there were no sleepers left so had to get seats..

Went to the silk market as well which was an experience people were coming at us from everywhere and you could barter them down on everything i managed to get a tshirt down from 250 yuan to 60 and bracelet from 90 to 8 ha ha..

On the last day we had to check out a 12 so left our bags in the hostel and wandered around for a bit then got some food played a bit of pool and headed to the station.. Eventually found our seats which we would have to sit in for 13 hours was a bit like a plane a bit annoying as i was knackered but nevermind.. I ended up finishing my book (yea im actually reading!!).. Onto shanghai probably stay there for a few nights then on to Guangzhou and Nanning before Vietnam..

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