Invasion of the Scots...

Amy and I endeavour to wake up fairly early on Thursday - in order to get everything done that we need to do and get to the Forbidden City. For the last couple of days we have had the room to ourselves which hasn't been disagreeable. This morning though we get a couple of new roomies (it's like big brother, who will you get? what will they be like?) who are in fact a couple and from Scotland! They are Rachael and James and are very lovely indeed. They have just travelled from Shanghai to Beijing via Chengdu and Xi'an, all the places that me and Ayms are destined for so we were eager to hear their stories.

Eventually we head out to the Forbidden City but arrange to go for some food later on, so we can show them some sights and sounds and help ease them into Beijing gently. The Forbidden City is a confusing place...also known as the Palace Museum. Amy and I were convinced we didn't want to go to the Palace Museum, just to the Forbidden City - this caused us problems because we were only able to buy tickets to the Palace Museum, there was no mention of the Forbidden City...a little later we discovered they were indeed the same thing!

We got into the City and lo and behold....it's under construction, we are now experts in Chinese scaffolding techniques and building equipment. We wander around, get stared at, wander some more, get stared at some more - our days are becoming fairly predictable at this point! THere is the usual crowds of tourists in red hats following a flag or an umbrella or someone screaming "BUS NUMBER 1, THIS WAY". It looked like one group had been told to dress up in their oddest outfits and that's how they would be distinguished for the day - there was a monk, a guy with a furry Russian hat on and a gaggle of women in 1920's style dress! The City was a lot of red buildings surrounding courtyards and off to the sides were small palaces with rooms and furniture...there was some information boards but not a huge amount to throw yourself into. At the back of the City was a garden which was nice apart from the lack of flowers, we ate some nutritional bread which was disgusting - apprently it contained carrots and eggs - we should have known from the start! On the way back to the exit we were railroaded into one of the courtyards and weren't allowed to leave. The crowd was already big and people were taking photos, we had no idea what was going on! Turns out there was some African officials being shown around and us lowly folk had to wait till they had passed.

Oh and Amy read somewhere that the Forbidden City is the size of Belgium?!?!? Enough said... :)

We left without anymore hassle and made our way back to the hostel. We met with James and Rachael again and decided to go to the Big Dead Fish Restaurant again - they gave us our own private dining room and free pork dumplings!? Amy will have to review these for you since I had already filled my "try one new thing a day" quota (that was the carrot bread Vikki if you already forgot :) This is the place to be if you have black micro fleece, they are all the rage!

Then to the hostel bar for a couple of drinks where we met Eric and a couple of hours later said goodbye to Eric - he's off to the more southerly parts of China. And then bed again...zzz zzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz

PS. Amy's "OW"! count is up to about 400 in the last five days :)