Beijing: Wednesday, September 7, 2011:

We enjoyed a relative lie in as we have another free day. After breakfast I got more Chinese money and changed some of it for smaller notes.

We got a taxi to the Den for 10 Yuan (about £1) and the driver was zipping in and out of lines of heavy traffic.

We visited a very swish shopping mall which was half empty and still waiting for shops to fill it.

We crossed over to the Samitun Yaxiu Clothing Market where, as well as clothes, you can get just about anything you want.

I managed to get a new memory card and battery for my compact camera. Haggling is a new experience and it is surprising just how low the traders are prepared to go. We even managed to get a few souvenirs for our family back home.

We went back to the Den for extremely thin and crispy Chinese pizza which was washed down with Tsing Tao and Guiness.

Building work is going on everywhere and the skyline is filled with cranes. Apparently McDonald’s and KFC are very popular for business meetings in China.

We couldn’t get a taxi so we had to walk back to the hotel.