(Polly) Itching to get out and see some famous spots today and amazingly the air cleared this morning and we could see the mountains. We walked to Tien'anmen Square, about a mile through some pretty 'interesting' streets (with even more 'interesting' shops) and found ourselves in a melee of Chinese lining up haphazardly to enter the square.

Security was just about as tight as we've ever seen but that was, we decided, reassuring. The square is the largest paved area in the world but with literally thousands of people there it didn't appear quite as impressive as we'd hoped. Mao's Mausoleum was closed so we couldn't buy the traditional flower to throw on his tomb. We then crossed into The Forbidden City, got tickets to climb Meridian Gate and along with thousands of others made our way up into the City. By this time we'd had just about enough and I'm afraid two cold beers held more attraction than yet more antiquity. Tomorrow, The Big One...The Great Wall of China! Pictures soon.

As an extra I thought I'd post a snapshot of our impression of the Chinese people and rule-obeying. They just don't. "No Photographs" means get your cameras out and as for crossing when the little green man is illuminated, twice we came within a hair's breadth of being flattened. You learn pretty quickly.

David @ Tien'anmen Square