Beijing - a busy day 1

After leaving Brisbane at midnight, we arrived in Beijing around noon and settled into our accommodation before meeting up with our tour group for dinner. The group of 26 is about half Australian, half from the UK, and a few from NZ.

Our first full day of touring was a huge day. We visited the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and the Imperial Gardens. We have been very fortunate with the weather - sunny and quite warm. We are also visiting at the end of their National week and most of the crowds had gone home. The weekend just past, there were reportedly around 300,000 visitors.

After dinner, we joined an optional tour to the Beijing (Peking) Opera. The costumes and make-up were amazing as was the choreography. The singing however, is often not pleasant to our western ears - somewhat like strangling a cat - however, it was a great experience.

Very exhausting day and we were in bed by 9pm. Hotel room is very spacious and the view wasn't too bad either.Read more