The Great Wall of China

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Day 36 - Monday 6th October - Had to get up early as our tour guide was coming to meet us at 9am. Got clean clothes to wear for the first time in 2 weeks. Hmm underwear, it's been a while!! Our guide (English name 'Wendy') met us and it was about an hour and a half drive to the part of the wall we were going to visit. Along the way we got to experience more crazy Chinese driving, as well as people walking in the middle of the road once we hit the smaller villages. Once at the wall we got a cable car to the top of the mountain and the view was absolutely stunning. I was pleased as it was quite quiet and wasn't heaving with loads of tourists. Just the odd annoying American here and there. The other two didn't fancy wandering too far so i went off on my own and climbed the highest point of that section. From there you could see the wall stretching out for miles into the distance. It was a clear, hot day as well so the views were fantastic. Hard work though, my legs were literally shaking as i climbed near the top. The way back down the mountain was by tobaggon. This was brilliant. You could pick up quite a speed and a couple of times i though i was going to tip out. Once at the bottom there was the usual market stalls selling crap 'wall of china related items'. As you walk up and down these stalls people literally grab you trying to sell you their products, and then are astounded when you don't want a silk bathrobe with a dragon on it.

On the way back to the hostel we made two stops. Firstly, we visited the Birds Nest from the Olympics. Unfortunately it's closed to the public now but we got some good views and photos from the outside. Then we made one last stop at a tea place. Here, we were guided into a small room to be given a demonstration on how great tea is in China. I learnt how to hold a cup properly (as if there is a proper way!!!) and got to taste a few different types of tea. After that we were almost forced to buy heap loads of tea for nearly 10 quid by a woman who couldn't quite believe we didn't want any. But we managed to escape without parting with any money.

We relaxed back at the hostel in the evening and met an Irish guy who had just bought a film called 'Trans Siberian'. As we'd recently done this trip we agreed to watch it with him, but it has the worst plot ever and really was a waste of two hours!

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