Arriving in Beijing was complicated! We weren't really sur where the hostel was. We bought a map but couldn' find it on that. The mertro was really crowded (luckily we did know which metro stop was closest). Mel and Steve couldn't get onto the train I got on so we had to meet at the station. We eventually found out hostel (with the help of a few policemen, of which there were plenty). The front had scaffolding all over it, they told us that the government was rebuilding it for the Olympics. Everything in Beijing seemed to be under construction (or demolition) and half done or not yet working.

Steve and I went in search of out train tickets (we had to pick them up). The walk back through Beijing was really interesting. There were huge, posh hotels lining the main road we walked along and it looked very much like any other city but then we couldn't help noticing the uniformed men everywhere. At all the road junction they were directing traffic and pedestrians (even though there were lights) and we saw one women get shouted at for trying to cross the road at the wrong time. We also saw a group of business men in suits who seemed more like soldiers. They were practically marching along, very fast. Steve pointed ouththat they looked like some Doctor Who aliens! It was disturbing and actually quite scary! That evening we met a Dutvh guy at our hostel. We had dinner with him and he showed us a nice restaurant.

The nest day we went to a chinese medicine shop (because it had an atm in it). There were some strange things in there! Some cost 1000s of pounds. There were deers' heads and dried snakes! We wandered around the hutongs near our hostel. They seemed so much more like the real China than the posh hotels and 6-lane roads (although I think the real china is really the juxtaposition of the two, and the great conflict of communism and capitalism which seem to go side by side in china). The streets of the hutongs are narrow and the houses are mostly one-storey. There are lots of little shops and cafes and people living their daily lives. They were so full of life. We found a little cafe. The menu was in english but the translations were ...interesting! They offered dished such as 'pats the cucumber' and 'the hand that holds the sausage'!

We did a walking tour of Beijing that we found in a Lonely Planet guide at the hostel. It took us ages to get to the start because Qianmen Square was all blocked off by police (the hostel later told us that there was a political conference going on). The tour took us round the walls of the Forbidden City, past some parks and lakes, through some hutongs (which were pretty dead compared to the ones near our hostel) and up to the Drum and Bell towers. We only had time to do the drum tower. They have one original drum which is very old and battered, then loads of replicas. Just as we had climed the (many) steps up, they started a little drum concert. It was good to watch, I don't know if it was meant to be the same as they used to tell the time when that was the use of the drum tower or if it was just a show. The view from the blacony was interesting. There were hutongs all around, some being demolished, and then a ring around them of huge sky-scrapers and modern buildings (that is really what Beijing is, I think). On the way back we went to a part at the center of Beijing with a hill and pagodaon top. It was dark by the time we got there so we climbed up and looked at the lights across Beijing.

An even bigger area around Qianmen Square was blocked off on wednesday. It took us ages to get round to the Forbidden City. We all split up inside the Forbidden City because we didn't have very long. It's a great place just to wander around. There are lots of buildings and temples (all built the same) with names like 'The Hall of Mental Cultivation' or 'The Palace of Great Benevolence'. the Imperial Garden was my favourite place, it was so beautiful.

We caught the train to Chengdu from Beijing West train station. It's massive. We had to go up and down stairs and escalators about 6 times and all over the place before we found the platform! On this train we were in first class (although it was a 4-berth the same as the trains mongolian - which was 2nd class). Everything was flowery (curtains, seats) and there were plastic flowers on the table. There was a chinese man sharing with us who didn't really speak english but he spent most of the time somewhere else of asleep.

We had our first experience of having to pick round meat (which isn't bad after nearly two weeks travelling). There was some confusion over when we could have lunch in the buffet car and they could only offer us noodles. Although we told them several ways in chinese that we didn't eat meat, they still served us noodles with bits of ahm in. They'd gone to so much trouble to feed us that we didn't feel we could send it back, although me and Mel didn't eat much.