Our accommodation in Beijing was booked on a whim on the internet without looking into it too much, and turned out to be really central and with a great bar and cafe attached so we were delighted. We were right around the corner from Wangfujing Street, the main shopping precinct, and only about 20 minutes walk or a couple of subway stops from Tianenmen Square. We were knackered by the time we got to the hostel, but we were too excited to sleep so we went for a walk round Wanfujing and Tianenmen before heading to the hostel bar for a few beers. (We found Wangfujing to be very expensive for shopping and souvenirs; Xinjiekou Bei Dajie and around Yandaixie Hutong in Hou Hai district were much better value and much better quality.)

The next day we were disastrously ill, Grainne much more so than Kieran. There was vomiting; it was projectile. By process of elimination, we deduced that it was not the previous night's beers because nobody else who drank them was ill, it was not the train food because we didn't eat any of that, and it wasn't the food we'd had at the market the night before, because surely immersing food in boiling sugar is the best way to sterilise it? We think it was a fried rice lunch we had in Beijing when we first arrived, the meat was a chorizo type thing which we thought was cooked but in hindsight must have been just smoked. It was Grainne's meal but Kieran tried it, which explains why Kieran wasn't quite as sick. So Grainne spent our first proper day in Beijing in bed all day and swearing to be more careful with what she ate from now on.

We were still feeling a bit rough the next day but didn't want to waste any more time, so we visited the beautiful Tian Tan Temple of Heaven complex nearby where we got to see some of the famous Chinese architecture that we know from storybooks and films – the same architectural style has been used for imperial and religious buildings for 2,000 years. Tian Tan is one of the largest temple complexes in China and was built in the Ming (literally “Brilliant”) Dynasty (1368 to 1644), the emperor made sacrifices here and prayed to heaven and his ancestors for a good harvest. It is set in a large and impressive park, where local Beijing people, mostly retirees, come to exercise, practice martial arts and ballroom dancing, and play games. There were tonnes of people engaged in all kinds of activities when we were there, even a full choir practising. The temple complex itself has two main halls along with a number of smaller buildings and a large outdoor stone altar, with the most impressive building being Qinian Dian, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Elaborately decorated and very striking, the hall is built entirely of wood without a single nail. One of the smaller buildings, the Imperial Vault of Heaven, is encircled by a stone wall which will carry a whisper from one side of the courtyard to the other if both speakers are facing the right way. We tried it out, (one of the benefits of contending with the cold at this time of year is that you don't have to contend with a million other tourists and you get to actually try stuff like this without having to queue for hours or shout over other people), and it really worked! We were 100 feet apart, facing away from each other, and with buildings in between us, and we could hear each other talking at a normal level as though the person was only 10 feet away. It has to be tried to be believed!

The Forbidden City was our next big outing and we nearly wore our hiking boots out walking round all the incredible buildings. Seriously, you could be there for days and still not see everything. It is roughly divided into four sections: the Outer Court; the Inner Court; the Eastern palaces; and the Western Palaces. The Courts are the most famous parts but there is plenty to see in Eastern palaces too, while the Western aren't open to the public. Like the Tian Tan complex, the Forbidden City was originally built in the Ming Dynasty, but only one building, the Gate of Heavenly Purity between the Inner and Outer Courts, still stands in its original state. All the other buildings in the Forbidden City have burned down at least once. With so many buildings being predominantly made of wood, fire must was a big problem in ancient China. Nearly all of the buildings are decorated with roof guardians to protect them from fire and many buildings in the Forbidden City have huge cauldrons beside them, which stored water to douse fires.

We concentrated mostly on the Courtyards, but we stopped in at the Hall of Treasures and the Hall of Clocks, respectively housing beautiful imperial jewellery and a huge collection of decorative clocks from all over the world. We were also really impressed with the 100ft long Nine Dragon Screen outside the Hall of Clocks. It was built to break up a straight line in the architecture of the Forbidden City, because Chinese ghosts only move in straight lines so the screen stops them from passing through the City. The dragons are beneficent in Chinese mythology and bring good luck, hence the Nine Dragons. The number nine recurs in many architectural details because it is both lucky and represents yang, the masculine element associated with the emperor. It is said that the Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms and many of the imperial doors feature 81 brass studs, as 9 times 9 is especially lucky.

After the Forbidden City we went for a long walk through some of Beijing's hutongs, which are alleyways between courtyard type houses called siheyuan. Often there would be two or three families living in a siheyuan, each with their own hall around a central courtyard. Many siheyuan and hutongs have been levelled in recent years to make way for new development, but some still exist in their traditional style and others have been converted into well appointed homes for government officials. Our guidebook recommended one hutong in particular which was supposed to be very traditional, but when we got there we found that it had been levelled to make way for something else which was still in the process of being built. What a shame, we hope this doesn't happen throughout Beijing. We did get to see inside a siheyuan in the Hou Hai district to the north of the city centre, it was the former residence of a famous Beijing opera singer so it is open to the public as a small museum.