Sophie's travels 2011-2012: 23/2/2012 Beijing, China

Another early start – we mastered the tube system and made our way to the National Stadium where the 2008 Olympic games were held. It was a clear blue sunny day thanks to the wind the night before which blew the smog away for a while. We climbed to the top of the ‘birds nest’ stadium which was very impressive, there must have been some sort of event in the stadium over the days before our visit before it was full of ice and equipment that was being packed away. There was a big screen with footage playing from the Olympics inside which was cool to sit in the stadium and watch and imagine what it would have been like to be there. We checked out the ‘cube’ swimming pool from the top of the birds nest then walked through Olympic park (with masses of kites flying everywhere) to the tube station where we made our way to the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace was brilliant. It was a massive park with music playing (mostly tranquil) and lots of little temples and shrines scattered around. We walked to the top of the hill for great views out over the frozen lake and temples then walked down to the water front and did a lap around the park. It was very peaceful and pretty even though we managed to lose each other! There were lots of ducks paddling around the defrosted parts of the lake which we thought should be scared for their lives in China!

We eventually made it back to the city for our last dinner together, yet another feast of amazingness!

We got back to the hostel and re-packed and weighed our bags and I made a little collection of goodies to post home. We backed up all our photos and prepared for our departure the following day.