According to Annlee, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and ten minutes later, Hamish came to the room with a Chinese hamburger for me. So I obviously had it for breakfast. The city tour left the hotel at 8:30am. The whole group set off, minus Dunn and Zach who are going to do the tour when their family arrive at the weekend and Helen, who has to do some Dragoman paper work. We follow Jason to the metro, taking two trains and finally arriving at Tiananmen Square. It feels strange being in this site which has been at the centre of quite a few memorable events. There are red flags everywhere, perfectly manicured gardens, guards standing erect entirely motionless, there's no rubbish or dirt and there are large group of tours. In front of Mao’s mausoleum are a couple of statues similar to the ones in the communist museum in Yannan. In the centre is a large tower, in front of which, six children stood. Two boys, four girls. Both the boys are holding flags and a girl stands to search side of them. Similarly to the guards, they are motionless. I don't know how long they hold it for, we watched the groups swap over, and the others sat in the shade beside the tower, maybe fifteen minutes? Thirty? When they swapped, the children marched in perfect synchronisation. I found the whole process really strange. After walking around the square we went into The Forbidden City. Unfortunately, similarly to by the time I had gotten to Mumbai in India, the buildings didn’t blow me away. We've experienced so many beautiful red temples, with gold roofs, blue, gold, silver and green decorations. Temples with fantastic statues and palaces with rooms that only hold a grand throne. The complex itself was impressive. So many buildings and statues, beautiful views, pristinely maintained grounds. It was also full of people, pushing you out of the way, barging in front of your view, shouting to one another. Annlee and I spent about an hour in the city before heading for the exit, where we sat and waited for the others and people watched. 

Annlee, Michelle, Loes and I got the 124 bus from The Forbidden City to the Hutong area. Annlee restrained herself from shoulder barging an elderly lady who practically pushed through her to get to a space that didn't exist, I overhead Loes tell a strange man ‘do not touch me?’ And Michelle said to someone ‘I don't understand what you want’. It would seem, in Beijing, the elderly take the buses, the younger generations take the metro. Either way, I will endeavour to take the metro were possible. Fortunately, we only had to wait three stops before we made it to our destination. We made our way to the street we had only briefly seen the day before, and walked along it. Problem was, we were all a little irritable and hungry. So we walked relatively silently and headed to the first restaurant we saw with a rooftop terrace. We had a rooftop terrace to ourselves and it was lovely. The sky was a clear blue, the sun was shining warm and bright, we sipped beers and ate noodles and curry. Apparently since India, I can eat curry in any weather now! Continuing through the bustling avenues, I stopped for frozen yoghurt, then Michelle. We meandered towards the drum tower, stopping to look at the cat cafes and perusing the gift shops. Down an avenue we found a small restaurant called The Meatball Company. The restaurant was owned by a guy from New Jersey and it had only been opened for six weeks. He was offering a three course Western lunch on Sunday for 100 rmb so Michelle and I booked ourself in. The menu sounded amazing and all the previous Western food we had had in China so far had been terrible. A few more hours spent slowly walking through the Hutong alley ways, around the lakes and back to the hotel. 
A quick change and the group left for it's last meal of Peking duck. I'm so excited for this. And I've been hyping it up to Annlee, who's ever had it. It wasn't good. And it wasn't cheap either. Hamish, Becs and I all try to convince her that the duck at home is so much better. I vow to take her out for duck pancakes when she comes to the UK. After dinner, we all head to NBeer bar which neighbours the hotel. At least 50 lagers, ciders and ales all on tap. It was a nice end to the tour