I woke up mid-morning in a relaxed mood. Today would be a day of rest. It was also pretty hot outside, and having been on a hectic journey for the last couple of weeks, I wanted to recuperate a little before going home.

Note that no-one did wake me up in the end, which is just as well cos I would not have been impressed by that :P !!

Wandered down the road, past the Temple of Peace, before deciding the heat was too much. Bought lunch (a couple of bread cakes, and an enormous sausage) before going back to my room.

Of course I had a number of plans and ideas for what I would actually do today. There were several places I could have visited, parts of Beijing I hadn't yet seen that would have been nice to look at. Unfortunately, as go the best laid plans of mice, men, and backpackers, they didn't happen. Instead, I fell asleep!!

Woke up about 4pm with a "whoops, oh bugger, ah well, never mind!". I am sure I'll pass this way again before I die! (Mind you, I said the same about Portugal ...). Besides, having been so used to having a group around to talk to and bounce comments off, the idea of going round alone seemed a bit strange somehow (of course I can't reconcile this with the fact that some of the time I was looking round alone, but hey, we can't always be consistent and in any case at least I had the rest of the group to fall back on!).

Decided to have a wander round the local area, effectively behind the hotel. I had no sooner got to the hotel reception desk when I met the Swedes and Mirella; they invited me to join them for dinner in the evening - they weren't going for an hour or two yet which suited me fine.

Behind the hotel, beyond the restaurant we'd been to on the first night in Beijing, there was a bit of a hutong. It seems really weird then that I trekked halfway across Beijing to see one when there was one right on my doorstep, as it were!

I didn't actually plan my route through it; I just let the roads take me, so I ended up quite deep into it before finding a route back. It was getting dark too by now; the hutong was full of life and lights. Little food outlets seemed to be everywhere!

Got back to the hotel in just round an hour. No sooner had I gone back to my room when the Swedes came knocking. We went back to that nearby restaurant where we'd gone on night one in Beijing. "The lads" had also been invited but they'd made their own plans.

The meal was a tad more expensive this time round; Tom wondered if it was because foreigners got charged more, but I suspected it was more to do with there being fewer of us (four times less people but we didn't eat four times less food?). We suspect there was also a different menu as one of two dishes we'd had previously weren't offered to us this time. In addition, a tour rep and her friend sitting on a table nearby were having an argument with a waiter; we suspect it was about the same kind of discussion. It was still good food though.

Went back to the hotel and met the lads; they were actually eating in the buffet pizzeria next door so we popped in to say "hi" and "bye". We all chatted in the restaurant for 10-15 minutes, before the Swedes decided it was time to go to bed. We said our "goodbyes" and I stayed with "the lads" (Daniel, Andy, and Alan). We stayed at the restaurant until it became clear they'd really rather prefer it if we left; this must have been about 10pm. We wandered back to the hotel bar (right next door) and we had a last few drinks.

The conversation was one of those sort-of completely off the wall chats that can only properly occur late at night with a drink in hand. We ended up discussing superheroes! And potential films that should be made, if any were to be.

There were rumours at the time of there being a new Superman movie, we all agreed it would probably be complete pants, although Alan had an interesting take on the concept; he figured that if one was made, they ought to kill him off in it; he thought that it would be a fitting end to the genre, as modern Superman was far removed from the original cartoon concept. We generally approved of the Spiderman movie though!

Anyway. We stayed at the bar until quite late. Alan disappeared into the toilet while the rest of us went upstairs - by the time I'd gone to bed, he hadn't re-emerged!