Beijing

What beautiful flowers.
Quack Quack Oops!
Praying mantis on the Great Wall
FIshing in the North Lake behind the SUmmer Palace, Beijing
Farmer cooking our lunch - trout!
Peace not Swine flu please
Tianneman Square shortly after 60th anniversary celebrations which involved a procession of 100'000 people. Here floats are on public display.
The great wall - a quiet spot we were lucky enough to find with our guide Storm. Only saw a handful of other tourists on the wall all day.
Walked up to this fortified building and it was hard going!
A view of the Beijing South railway station - impressive! Not the main station but a brand new structure with brand new trains to match - they travel at speeds of up to 350kph.

At the Chinese border the train was greeted to the sound of a majestic anthem played over loudspeakers on the platform. It was quite a welcome with probably close to a hundred uniformed officers ready to board the train for customs and immigration inspection. Arrived Beijing 11 Sept and met Monika at station, it was great to see a familiar face. It didn't take long to realise China is on a different scale to most other places - the crowd outside the main station meant a simple "meet you outside" was not going to be as easy as expected!

Nonetheless made it and over the next few days visited the Great Wall, Forbidden City, succumbed to a minor chest infection, ate some interesting and very spicy food, made the most of the awesome breakfast at the hotel and took in the sights and sounds of Beijing.