The Eastern Discovery Tour
Day 1

As I was already within walking distance from it I headed over to the Birds Nest Stadium, made famous during the 2008 Olympics. When first seeing it for the first time I did find it a little underwhelming. It's an impressive structure, but not as impressive as I expected it to be.

One thing I noticed while travelling around China was how much more intrepid some of the elderly were. Here there were a large group of them climbing up the long set of steps to get in to the main area of the statdium.

The Water Cube and the Birds Nest Stadium are the main attractions of the area, but there are also other parks and sports areas around it. I think this one is a good recreation of were the London Olympics will end up being held.

Now I found the exterior of the stadium underwhelming, well the interior had the opposite effect. It's not until you see it in person that you truly get a sense of the sheer scale of the structure, it truly is awe inspiring.

As well as the awe inspiring stadium there are regular performances from gymnasts, martial artists and even BMX bikers to entertain the visitors.

A shot of the stadium from the plaza that surrounds it.

After the stadium I headed over to Beijing train station. I had read about the sleeper train to Shanghai on this website. I went to the ticket office, and queued up at the English speaking window. When I got there though the person their only spoke limited English, plus when I asked about the sleeper trains she didn't know about them, even though I'd seen them on the boards around the station. In the end I decided the trip to Shanghai wasn't worth the risk of being stranded, so opted for the extra time in Beijing instead. If anyone is planning a trip to Shanghai, and must have the tickets I would recommend paying the extra to get a tour company to book them in advance.

Next I headed over to the Wangfujing area. This is one of Beijing's main shopping areas, featuring a large range  of shops and shopping malls. One particularly useful place to remember here is exit A of the Wangfujing Metro (line 1) station. This leads out to the Oriental Plaza food court, which is useful if you need an easy meal at the end of a day sightseeing. It also includes a bakery selling bread (not that easy to find in Beijing) and cakes, and a supermarket if you want to buy any drinks and snacks for the hotel or a picnic.

If your just after a snack there are two huge areas just off Wangfujing featuring a large number of snack stalls.

There is a good range of food, including some unusual snacks such as squid, insects and scorpions (made especially for tourists) on a stick.