The first few days in Beijing were busy and eventful, which is a good way to describe the city in general!! Rented bikes for the day for EUR2, and blended in like the locals, well almost. Covered over 18 miles around a very very spread out city. Had a few close calls with the traffic lights, followed the crowd only to notice light was still red ! Cycling round the man made lakes was good, and eventually got to ride down the west side of Tienanmen Square 
which was very cool . Went for the local dish of Mongolian Hotpot for dinner, which is kind of like a poor man's Fondue, a far cry from the Melting Pot in Hoboken. The shrimp were the scariest...looked almost alive! Saturday we did 
the Forbidden City, the home of Emperors for hundreds of years, at the very heart of Beijing a site from which the entire city propagates, and finished the day watching the flag lowering ceremony in Tienanmen Square at dusk, 6pm, which attracts hundreds of on lookers, after 
which the entire square lights up. After a few Tsing Tao's on Sat night, Sunday was a slow day, booked a flight to Xian for Friday 3rd since the trains are all booked up and a hostel there for 5 nights. Air ticket was only EUR64 for a 2 hr flight, not bad, and the great thing is that the website deliver the ticket to the hostel and accept COD as payment!! Sunday afternoon checked out one of the main parks in Beijing which had great views of the fog smothered city. Also - it was a 
big hang out spot for the locals on a Sunday afternoon, where they gather and sing, play music or perhaps do some karaoke as you can see in the video link.We were even asked to sing an English song...but declined !! Bed early as need to be up at 6am following day for the Great Wall climb.....................zzzzz
More pics here : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76269&l=f84da&id=648737666
