The Summer Palace and the Olympic Stadium...

Hi Everyone,

I forgot to say in last nights e-mail that on the way to the acrobatics show we drove past Jingshan Park and Tian'anmen square all lit up in the dark. Jingshan looked absolutely beautiful. These central areas look very different lit up at night. You are not allowed to enter Tian'anmen square after a certain time of night, I presume to prevent political protest.

Last nights Thai was really really good! I had Chicken curry and chicken satay ! It was yummy! In a restaurant not far from the duck restaurant called 'Serve the people'.

Today I slept while Rob went to see Mao. He said he looked fake... not too surprising really.

We then headed down to the Summer Palace. Jimmy had said this was a must. When we got there we had dumplings, which we good! lol! When we headed in the first thing Rob saw was Goldie... really really randomly! We then saw him later when we were heading up to the Buddhist temple!

We headed for the lake first which looked absolutely beautiful as it was completely frozen. Everyone was walking over it so we spent about 15 minutes walking on the ice. I got really scared at one point, not very keen on the idea of falling into freezing water. But turned out that it looked like the whole of the water to the bottom was completely frozen. Rob said I shouldn't be scared because all the Chinese people were doing it. I have learnt that this is not necessarily the best guidepost to use, many of the Chinese we have encountered completely ignore warning signs and rules! My favourite incident of this was when a man decided to get up as we were literally just about to take off from heathrow! lol!

The summer palace was really really beautiful, although I still do not think that it beats Jingshan park, possibly because Jingshan was much less busy and quieter.

We spent about 4 hours at the Summer Palace and then got a taxi to the Olympic Stadium. We got the second taxi that we found as the first driver tried to make us pay $80 for the ride that did cost and should cost on the meter about $25.

The Olympic stadium looked really cool, although unsurprisingly for Beijing on the side of a big expressway. I can't decide whether it looked out of place or not. It seems to be nearing completion so should not be a problem for the start date of the Olympics. I thought it would have a thinner parts making up the birds nest effect from the models I've seen but that in practice would actually be a bit stupid! lol!

After the Olympic stadium we headed back to our hotel, which we have really loved! We headed to a chinese fushion restaurant nearby that we wanted to try the other night but it was closing early. This was really nice. Rob had pork meatballs and mongolian lamb. I had a chicken and chilli curry like thing with rice. We shared some fried potatoes with coriander. All was reall y really nice. I did not have the stomach to try the bullfrog on the menu. My chicken curry however had all parts of the chicken in it, including lots of bone. It did also have a whole chickens claw which I had to ask Rob to remove. Lol! I think I'm just a little to scared to have a claw in my food! lol! Rob however decided to nibble it. There was not however much meat on it , just skin.

After that we headed to a coffee shop place on the same street and had a drink.

Tomorrow evening we are flying to Sydney, we should arrive at lunch time Tuesday our time. Which will at that point be about 10 hours ahead of you, for those of you in the UK.

We have decided that we have really enjoyed Beijing but there are a few things we will not miss, these being...

- The spitting
- The toilets!!!
- The staring
- The chapped lips... although thanks to DC we were both covered by the intensive moisturiser! Thanks guys... was very very needed!

Anyways, I'm off to bed.

Lots of Love,

Sarah xxx