China Day 2/Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City

So our first full day in China saw us awake at 6.30am after a so so nights sleep on a rock hard bed, after getting to the room we had to ring reception as there was no power point next to the bed for me to plug in my Cpap machine.

Before getting to the room we had to walk around 200 metres from where the bus dropped us off to the hotel, not far you are thinking, however, when you feet are swollen and extremely sore it feels a bloody lot further.

I was that exhausted that I fell into bed and slept in my clothes, the next morning saw us go to a pearl factory to learn about pearls, we then went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which involved a lot of walking up and down stairs but thankfully for me they have a wheelchair service that cost us 300yaun or $60 Australian.

I was met at the bus by a lovely woman who didn't speak English who gave me a silly hat and insisted I wear it, she pushed me all over the place at the start I had to get up and walk down some stairs and then up again. However, at the third set of stairs I had trouble standing so she told me to remain sitting and she turned me around and dragged me up the stairs, from then on she wouldn't let me stand and managed to push/pull me up and down stairs and all over the place. Afterwards she dropped me back at the bus but we spent over 2hrs maybe closer to 3hrs there, with me being pushed the whole time.

We then went to a theatre where some of the group did an optional tour which was to see a stage show called The Golden Dynasty Musical, Tim and I didn't bother with it as it was $70 each, we did however, walk up a heap of stairs to go to Pizza Hut where we got a cold drink and I had a slice of cake before walking back to the bus and waited for the rest of the group.

I might add that the temperature was around 36°c so bloody hot, it was 8pm by the time we got back to the hotel.