A city, a teashop, a wall and Beijing duck

Woke up today to glorious sunshine, the last two days in Beijing were bitterly cold, so it was a pleasant surprise. I started my time here with a visit to the Forbidden City, a sprawling campus of palaces that was home to the emporers for about 500 years and is so-called because ordinary people were forbidden from entering. The emporer lived there with his emporess and concubines. According to the audio guide it was a hot-pot of scheming, murder, abuse and general high drama. On leaving I met two Chinese girls who blindsided me with Oriental beauty and - like the gullible idiot I am - led me to a Chinese teahouse where I was ripped off, though not too badly. Yesterday was the Great Wall - a stretch north of Beijing called Mutianyu, or something like that. It was great to see, although it's one of these things which is so well filmed and photographed that it holds no surprises. It was a freezing day and misty so the pics, which I promise to add soon, could have been better, but as it's autumn here, the leaves were golden brown and falling so it was particularly scenic. And there was a tobogan ride down, which was a laugh. In the evening I went for Beijing Duck with a friend of a friend who lives out here, and her friends. (Jane you were right) it was brilliant to meet someone local. We drank this horrifically potent clear spirit and by the end of the night I was nicely hammered. Xi'an on an overnight train in a few hours, Terracotta Army, etc. China is harder to navigate than south-east Asia, very few people seem to speak English (except when they want money) and that's in Beijing, but like India it is probably more rewarding for that.