Day 2, and hungry.

We survived the night. Just. :D
We had no idea where we could get any breakfast, and so we walked the streets for about an hour trying just to find a supermarket, or anything! We couldn't find anything, and we were in a very 'local' part of Beijing, so there were hardly any signs in English, and not many people spoke enough English to help us. The only thing we found was a guy frying dough (we think it was dough) in the street. We bought two, but it was disgusting and only made Sarah feel worse. Jack ate them both, of course. Then we took a taxi ride to the Forbidden City (we'd heard there was a Starbucks). We stood in the outer courtyard for a bit, looking lost, when a Chinese guy came up and said he'd help us find food if we'd have our photo taken with his Japanese friends. He showed us to a stall selling biscuits and stuff (at extortionate prices), and we posed for a photo with the Japanese kids. This would not be the last time Sarah got 'Whitegirl-ed'.

We then entered the Forbidden City, which was vast and pretty amazing. It was our first taste of traditional Chinese architecture, and we walked from throne room to throne room (the emperors were fond of sitting, it seems). There were also many rooms for the emperor's 1000 'lady-friends', their 3000 eunuchs, and I'm not sure where they kept his 100 children! We were there almost all day and only managed to see a very small section of the City. The gardens were beautiful, full of blossom trees and fake grottos, even a man-made cliff.

Our only meal was a hotdog at lunch time (Sarah was so hungry by this point that she actually ate the mustard and gherkins that came with them). When we felt we'd seen enough for the day, we took a taxi back to the hostel. That evening, we had our first Chinese meal, at a sort of 'Noodle King'. We weren't sure what we were ordering, and it turned out to be a prawn noodle dish. Jack ate all of his (isn't he brave), and Sarah picked at what hadn't been fishified.
Afterwards, we discovered a patisserie jsut down the road, and this turned out to be the turning point of our food crisis. We gorged ourselves. It was good.

S&J

ps. Mamma Baillie- I saw a cat! A live one! Couldn't take a photo though, it was too fast. SMB xx