Our Monday morning began with a visit to the beautiful Temple of Heaven, an ancient place of worship. Although we were not allowed inside, the stunning exterior made up for it. We enjoyed a stroll around the peaceful surroundings, whilst admiring the building itself.

After this, a short bus journey took us to the Pearl Market.  The Pearl Market consists of three floors packed full of vendors selling everything from silk scarves to cameras.  We had just under 2 hours of free time to navigate our way around the market, where we were able to do some shopping for gifts and other items. This gave us the opportunity to show off the bargaining skills that we learnt during our Mandarin classes in Tianjin.  It soon became clear that the vendors were being extremely unrealistic in their pricing.  For example, when we asked how much a silk scarf was being sold for, the original quote was ¥1500 (about £190)!  However after some stubborn negotiation, the price was agreed at ¥100 (about £13).  Persistence pays off!

After the market, we enjoyed some lunch at a local restaurant.  Then, we visited the Hanban Confucius Headquarters. Here, we listened to a presentation from the First Secretary for Scottish Affairs from the British Embassy in China, Martin McDermott, who spoke about his role in developing relations between Scotland and China.

After this, we walked up Qianmen street, the oldest pedestrian street in Beijing and made our way to a famous roast duck restaurant, where we enjoyed lots of duck pancakes.  We then returned to our hotel, where most of us began the somewhat challenging task of packing our suitcases, ready for checkout the next morning.

The following morning, Tuesday, it soon became clear that the majority of us had more things to pack than we had space for.  Nevertheless, we managed it, and checked out of our hotel for the last time. We made our way to the Olympic Park, and saw the Bird’s Nest stadium and Water Cube aquatics centre.

We then visited the Beijing zoo, and saw lots of different animals, including Giant Pandas (even though they were asleep). We then arrived at another restaurant for our final meal in China, where we enjoyed many now-familiar dishes.

We then went to the airport, Tuesday evening, and checked in our luggage.  Many of us were disappointed that the duty free shops were already shut, but we did find a Costa. We then boarded our first flight to Dubai, and travelled through the night. After a 3 hour stopover, we boarded our Glasgow flight, and we are now all looking forward to getting home on Wednesday.

Jenny Smith & Jemma Whyte