By our director in Beijing

Last night we went around the corner to order off a picture menu - nothing was in English - but we managed to clarify something was pig. But then duck came out! And it was cold, raw duck, with mustard.

Steve and I put one bit in our mouth ... and that was that. But we thought it would be rude to leave it, so we ordered 2 other dishes.

We nibbled at one dish. They looked like dim-sims. We think they were dumplings

The beds in our hotel room are hard. It's like sleeping on the floor, but it's ok.

Every trip in a cab is an experience. It is near-impossible to find someone who speaks English.
(Language is a challenge everywhere we go. If I get stuck I just call the interpreter and put her on the phone! We love our interpreter.)

The cabbie taking us to our hotel yesterday looked like he knew what we were saying. We were told to say 'McDonell' to go to McDonalds. The cabbie smiled in agreement but he took us straight pas it to a hotel.

Douggie, our producer, tried to take a cab to Pengu Plaza where the Sunrise production office is.

Only they dropped him at the Olympic Green - and the guy kicked him out!

Douggie refused to pay the fee, which equaled about $5 and before he knew it, the cab driver was calling an Olympic official!

Security is literally everywhere.

There is a security person in every lift of the broadcast centre - where they have employed 600 security staff to take care of us.

Yes, six hundred.

Where do you find six hundred available security staff? Apparently they have ex-military doing everything.

So it's very... safe.