That there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing is a 'fact' for which I cannot vouch with anything like the certainty of 'our Katie'. However, there are a damned lot. It is not all that surprising, given that there are something like 18 million Chinese living here and that Beijing itself is approximately the same size as Belgium. If they all drove everywhere this place would very quickly become the automotive equivalent of fly-paper and the atmosphere, already bordering on intolerable, would be almost as impenetrable as the Great Wall.

There is a lot to see in Beijing and one could easily spend weeks exploring it. You would not, after all, expect to do justice to Belgium in a long weekend. Highlights are of course Tiananmen Square (including Mao's tomb), the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Great Wall. Other than that there are a lot of bars and restaurants here that are well worth a look, a really nice souvenir market, the Beijing opera for he cultured (I skipped it) and the acrobatics shows which are completely mind-blowing and an absolute must-see.

The Chinese were kind enough to build Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City next to one another and so we naturally visited these together. Aside from the sheer size of the Forbidden City (a long morning allowed us to cover at most 30% of it), I found it monumentally underwhelming. This was partly down to the heat, partly to the aftermath of the (no)sleeper train and was perhaps not helped by most of the key buildings being shrouded in scaffolding. Reconstructions are very much in progress. However, for museum buffs it has a lot to offer and the amusement factor of positively the worst audio tour I have ever encountered anywhere was worth the giggle, if not the 100 Yuan. Tiananmen square is a very different story. Other than the huge monument to Mao containing his corpse in state which you can queue to see if you are willing to wait (it was closed when we got there), Tiananmen square is little but a very big expanse of concrete. However the recent history of this place makes a visit here poignant somehow and as such well worth a wander. We more-or-less circumnavigated the square (a fair walk) taking in lunch along the way. The Summer Palace is a much nicer experience than the Forbidden City and it is very easy to kill a day here walking around the beautiful lakes and appreciating the architecture of the lake-side temples and palace buildings. We were lucky enough to be there while they were staging a music and dance display.

The highlight of Beijing, though, was very definitely the Great Wall. A five hour drive from Beijing takes you to a point where you can walk a remote 10km section. This is well worth the extra investment of time against the alternative of the standard Beijing tourist area. It is, as I understand it, rare to experience the wall in clear weather. It is usually, at the very least, misty (a common theme in China) and if you are unlucky expect to be rained on. This in no way detracts, however, providing a wholly atmospheric experience with the wall and the beautiful scenery upon which it stands emerging from and disappearing into the murky distance in front and behind you. The walk itself is a relatively easy jaunt but has some short, steep and in some cases treacherous climbs and decents along the way. The humidity makes it harder, though, (at least for me) and I finished the walk ringing wet through with sweat which is less than pleasant.

All in all despite the debilitating humidity Beijing was a great experience. Here, though, we lose two of our fellow travellers (Liz and Denice), v-sad. Joe and Naomi join us, though, so we still have a full complement for the last leg of the trip. SE Asia and Bangkok here we come...