12th August: Day two

After 12 hours sleep we eventually got up and decided to get off to a good start. We went down the street and into a chineese restaurant for breakfast. The menu was all in chineese so all we could do was point. It is the biggest language barrier I have come across in my travels and explaining things only got worse as the trip went on.

It was straight to the Forbidden Palace from there.

It looks a lot more impressive from outside with the massive portrait of Mao looking over Tianamen Square. Inside, there isn't much to see and the museums are very badly laid out with artifacts that were not that interesting at all. What was amazing was the scale of the place though. We were walking for hours around it and i'd say we missed a lot. The designs on the roofs were the most spectacular with unbelievabe artwork. From there, it was on to the Heavenly Gate Palace. Our mission was to get there using only public transport which we did with ease, as the subway and bus system in the city is a dream. Travelling around I was completely shocked. It was not as I had imagined China to be. Really modern, spotlessly clean and not as crowded as you would expect.

We arrived at the Heavenly Gate Palace to find that it was closed but we walked around the park and got to see the main sights anyway.

After a heavy day's walking we had a few beers (Tsingtao beer, gorgeous stuff at 30 cent a pint) and headed to the bed.