Beijing, Weds Sept 24th

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We were greeted by a very rare event in Beijing this morning - blue skies and sunshine. Clearly yesterday's rain had temporarily cleared the smog. What's more we enjoyed a leisurely start - breakfast at 8am!!

We started off in Tiananmen Square, in which we bathed in the sunshine and took a few photographs. The Square holds Chairman Mao's Mausoleum and so is very popular with the Chinese people. The locals need to pass through a lengthy security process before entry - I suspect this is a really strategy to limit access.

From Tiananmen Square we entered the Forbidden City - home of Chinese emperors for many centuries. Impressive or what. This is not small set of buildings - unsurprising as it housed the emperor, his wife, his 100+ concubines, their children and a multitude of servants. The thousands of Chinese visitors were intent on taking photos (of very little) through open doorways and windows - so avoiding these allowed us to soak up the ambiance in peace. The Forbidden City's Garden was another story - bursting at the seams.

It was now mid-afternoon and we headed off to the airport to catch our plane to Xian - there came the first near-disaster of the trip. Someone had booked Kate's flight tickets using the wrong name - 30 mins and much scurrying later our guide had sorted the problem and we did get to Xian!! We celebrated this with a beer and a whisky in the bar of our hotel - we know how to push the boat out!!

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