Day 19 Summer Palace,Beijing and night train to Shanghai

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Hi All,



So today we headed to the Summer Palace. We had to get the Metro to the Far North West of Beijing which was about 25km, grand total costing us £0.22 each lol.

Once there we paid the huge sum of £1 and then a stupid £4 for english audio guides (should have learnt from the Forbidden City that these are shite and don't work!!).

It was stunning, the views are amazing over the lake; the old emperors must have been physically fit as we had to rock climb to get past the first palaces. Vicky had said she had never been until we got inside and she said 'Oh yeah Louisa and I came here and oh yeah we went on that boat!! (one she is in photo with).

We had a walk around occasionally getting some info on the audio guide, the bridge of 17 arches was nice (hard thinking up that name).



After 4 hours we decided to head back into main Beijing to get lunch and to head to the hostel, we found this small restaurant on the main street which looked good so went inside and ordered...was so good I tried something different (again) and so did Vick, it was so good, steamed buns with a meat filling and a meat and rice dish for me and noodles for Vick both were amazing and cost £2 each crazy!!!



We then got to the hostel and had to pack and make sure we had everything charged for the train. We sat and organised all our trains to Xi-an and read up online about Shanghai places to visit, a nice Swiss girl sat with us chatting and advising us what she did (hostels are cool for things like that).



After everything was done we headed to the train station, I was flustered as thought leaving at 1815 would be ok for our 1934 train but didn't leave hostel until 1830 as I was loading yesterdays blog photos still!!! But we got on the Metro and maded it easy, even had to wait around for the gate to open. Once on the train we settled into the cabin both on the tops with two Chinese guys below so no spooks for us!!! Then thankful sleep came after another long day travelling!!



Thats all for now!! Love N&V X

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