We travelled with the travel Company Kuoni and were escorted from London back to London. Our English guide was Patti. We met our Chinese guide, Jack, who is the representative of C.I.T.S. which is the China International Travel Service. He seemed surprised that we were on time as the Chinese call China Airlines (CAAC) "China Airlines Always Cancelled!!" Everwhere we went in China we had a representative from C.I.T.S. The first thing Jack taught us was to say hello in Chinese it is pronounced 'knee how'.

Our hotel is the Grand View Garden Hotel. We changed some traveller cheques into Yuan. When we were there the exchange rate was 12.80 Yuan to £1. It is now 13.60 Yuan to the £1 (2000). We had a relaxing day to recovering from the flight.

Grand View Garden Hotel

Our first visit was to Tian An Men Square. The first thing that struck me was the hudreds of bicyles, I have never seen so many people going about their business on bicyles. In the U.K. we have bike lanes in some towns, here they own the streets!

Tian An Men Square. Called the biggest plaza on earth it covers 100 acres. I noticed there was a long line of people, the line must have been at least half a mile long. The were filing into the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall which contains the embalmed body of Chairman Mao who led the Peoples' Republic for 27 years. He led the country through periods of famine and ideological disaster, culminating in the Cultural Revolutiobn, when millions died in great purges and leftists world-wide quoted the 'Little Red Book'. Through it all, China became a Great Power. Twenty years after he passed from life into legend, Mao still haunts the dreamscape that is China. Over his life, the messiah of China's communist revolution has decayed into a household god.