Friday 26th October 2018

We had a great night sleep in our hotel. The breakfast included full English, cereals, fruit and pastries which was a welcome change to the traditional Chinese breakfast.

At 830 we left and headed to Tianamen Square. It was being set up for an official ceremony as the Japanese Government had arrived for Congress. We then made our way to The Forbidden City. Peter spent lots of time talking us through the history of the Forbidden City, he told us about the different Dynasty’s and the reasons why the place was built. It was started in 1406 and was finished in 1420. The Emperor moved in in 1421 along with ‘his people’ who were farmers and produced enough food for the entire year. 

We spent a lot of time exploring the the vast grounds before spending a little time in the imperial gardens before heading to our next stop.  Lots of the boys recognised the building from films they had watched.

We headed straight to Hutong for a rickshaw ride. We were taken around the village by one of the locals for around 30 minutes. The houses were extremely small and didn’t look comfortable to live in. 

From here we headed to the Silk Factory, there are only two of these left in Beijing. The lady demonstrated where the silk came from and how they processed it. They even showed us how they made duvets from it before they let us into their ‘overpriced’ shop. We didn’t buy much - we will look for it cheaper elsewhere.

On the way for our Peking Duck dinner we had time to stop at the Black Market - our guide knows all the good places to go! We only had 30 minutes here to see the diamonds, jewels and other goods. Mrs Hogg, Mr Sanderson and Miss Harrison soon disappeared behind a secret mirror - the ladies were in their element with all the LV and Gucci bags. They ended up paying 10% of the original price quoted. They are very happy!

We then arrived at our restaurant which was the best meal we have had so far. The food just kept coming with the highlight being Peking duck.

From here we moved onto the Kung Fu Show which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We are really starting to understand the Chinese Culture.

One thing we are all struggling to get our heads around is the spitting that the Chinese do in the streets. Apparently this is the done thing here but has now been banned on the streets. It makes our stomachs churn.

We are currently stuck in mad evening traffic en route back to our hotel for the night.

Tomorrow is the day we get to climb the Great Wall - we are so excited!

‘I’ve had a great day with riding a rickshaw round Beijing and watching a Kung Fu show in a theatre, my favourite scene was the fight scene at the end.’ Will S