Getting to Beijing was not too stressful, we took a 3 hour flight from Hanoi. There were hardly any people on our flight, so we nearly had the whole plane to ourselves. We flew with Vietnam airlines, and I actually thought they were pretty good. Once we'd arrived in Beijing airport, we had to find a way into the city. We took the express train service and had to change lines a couple of times. That was difficult carrying our rucksacks on our back on the train. But we saved a lot of money doing it that way, a taxi would have cost 400 RMB, this cost around 60 RMB ( it's about 10 to the pound).

Avoid the tricycles- they are no tuk tuk  

We got off at the nearest stop to our hotel and John said it wasn't that far, so we decided to walk to our hotel. As we were walking, some guys pulled up on what looks like a tuk tuk asking if we wanted a lift to our hotel. At first we declined and said we'd walk, but when they said it would be 3RMB, John said it's only 30p so let's take it. They are only small and with all our luggage, there wasn't enough room for both of us and the bags. So they put my stuff on one and the other driver took John and his stuff. I didn't like the idea of being split up as if we got lost, there's no way of getting in touch with each other.

Off we went and my driver overtook the other one and tried to get me lost as there was no sign of John. I did get a bit worried, but in the end, it worked out alright. My driver dropped me off near the hostel, then a few minutes later John arrived. We went to give them the payment of 3RMB, and expected to have to pay 6 for us both. But when John went to pay, they tried to demand 300 RMB £30 for a 2 minute journey! No chance! We told them we don't like being ripped off and nearly didn't pay them anything, but John gave them 10 and that's it. Then when we arrived in the hotel, we saw a note on the reception desk warning people about taking rides on these tricycles as you will be hit with a big bill you need to pay! So we learned the hard way, but luckily we didn't hand over a large sum of money.

The next day we were going to go to The Forbidden City , but we were so tired we overslept. They say you need a whole day to explore the city, so we said we'd go the next day. When we checked online, we found out it's closed on a Monday, so that's scuppered our plans. We had no other option but to book the Great Walk of China for the Monday instead of going on Tuesday. The weather wasn't suppose to be good then, which is annoying, but we just gotta go with it. So we booked the tour to the Mutiuanu section of the Great Wall for tomorrow.

We went out to have a wander about in Beijing city centre in the afternoon. They've got a high street with plenty of the designer stores, and plenty of shopping malls to keep you entertained. I was very happy wandering around the shops for an afternoon. Then we came back and got some street food in the evening. There are many stalls all shouting to get your attention. They sell all kinds from noodles, to dumplings, Peking duck, snake, grub worms, fruit, kebabs and some jelly like concoction that I thought was potato and John ordered some, it could have been tripe or anything! After dinner, we wandered back to the hotel as we have an early start tomorrow- eek The Great Wall!