On Wednesday we visited the Olympic Green (a bit of a trek on the subway - four different lines with a good old hike in between each one). As you come out of the subway station, you can see the Bird's Nest Stadium ahead of you, as well as the television broadcasting tower, and as you climb up the steps you can also see the Cube. It's all very impressive - very clean and well organised as you would expect. The only place to eat indoors there is McDonalds and it was far too cold to try anywhere outside so we had the obligatory hamburger and fries for lunch. They've turned the inside of the stadium into a snow park for the winter with skiing and tobogganing, and we had a good look round; then sent postcards home from the post office they have inside the stadium and so we're hoping that the cards will have a cool postmark on them when they arrive. Sadly the Cube was closed and so we weren't allowed inside, even to have a look.

Yesterday morning we were up early as we had planned to visit the Forbidden City in the morning before the crowds got too big, and decided to go via the Starbucks south of Tianan'men Square for hot chocolate and pastries. We're so glad we did; as we were leaving Starbucks we saw people dressed up and hung around for a few minutes to see what was happening, and were rewarded with front row standing room for a display of Chinese dragons (Simon was right - the ones we saw at the Summer Palace WERE actually lions) as well as lots of people dressed up as the Lion Captains and all sorts of other things to tell the Chinese New Year story (we can't elaborate as to what the story is, because it was all in Chinese, but it was very entertaining!) We took some great photos and will upload them as soon as we are able. Once the display had finished, the performers began to parade down the high street and so Simon and I ran ahead to get some more pictures. It was difficult to see over the heads of the police escort that was there, so Simon put me up on his shoulders to get a better view and we ended up with lots of people taking pictures of us too! We've also had several people ask if they can have their picture taken with us since we've been here - very sweet but feels a bit odd. Beijing is full of tourists and most of them are Chinese and so we must look a bit of a novelty.

Our afternoon was spent at the Forbidden City - not quite what we were expecting but fairly impressive, and also fairly huge.

The fireworks have continued day and night since Saturday - new year celebrations here really go with a swing! We're off to Tokyo first thing tomorrow, where the weather will be a little warmer, and we should be able to get back on Facebook then too. China has been fab and we've really enjoyed being here - the people are great too (apart from the pushing and shoving which seems to be the norm here and no-one has been offended when we've thoroughly un-Britishly shoved back - if you can't beat 'em then join 'em we say). Definite highlights were the Great Wall and the dragon display, and making new friends along the way.

Kung hei fat choy!