Overland '05

Day 15 - Fri 13 May 05, Beijing, China

Out on the town by 9am after a good breakfast at the hotel, walked over to the Forbidden City, but on the way over I spotted a camera shop - after a bit of barter I managed to get a 512Mb Xd card for 650 Yuan. Bargain! Got to the gate of the city and paid 60 Yuan to get in. It was mobbed by local tourists, but it was well worth a look. There was a great deal of building work going on inside the City I assume this was due to the Olympic Games..

I headed to Starbucks that's inside the city to obtain a mug for a pal's collection, while I was paying David bumped into a couple of workmates, talk about a small world!

After that we headed out to the main shopping drag and got something to eat. After that we headed to the park at the north end of the Forbidden city, and climbed up to the pagoda to get some photographs of the rooftops the City.

A trip on a trolley bus got us back to the Hotel, and then on to a local shop to purchase provisions for the train trip. The owner was very impressed by my chicken impression while working out what flavour noodles to buy!

Then a final trip to buy a present for our home stay's, after a lot of looking we managed to find pair of small bronzes, one of the moon, the other of a star. We started out at 198 Yuan, and I got it down to 165, when Guy and David said, "give them 170". I was out numbered by the staff and my travelling companions!