01 Oct

---

01 Oct

Off early this morning headed for the great wall, and Raf, you are correct, the air is pretty shitty although our guide tells us it will be sorted by the time the Olympics are ready to go. It is China National Day today so as expected huge crowds everywhere. As we were on a pre-arranged guided tour we got priority parking at all our stops and small group exclusivity at many venues, this is a real plus on a tour like this and one I would definitely recommend.

Our first stop was a jade factory, we saw the production of jade pieces from bare stone to finished artwork, I did not realize how many variations there are in the different Jades. Shirley spent some serious money at this point. The workmanship was exceptional and of course we left via the shop. Shirley spent some serious money at this point. The Great Wall was not at all what I had imagined, it is as massive as I had expected but is much more dressed and ceremonial than I had thought it would be. Even seeing the small part we saw, it is easy to see that it is one of mans most impressive achievements especially when you realize that much of the construction was in places too steep for animals so all the material carrying as well as the construction was 100% manpower.

We walked from the ceremonial gate up to the top of the adjacent ridge, boy I am glad Bodil gave me a workout over the last couple of days, a lot of steps but worth it. We then of course walked down again, more bloody steps. After spending the morning here we went off to lunch at a factory that makes beautiful gold rimmed porcelain bowls, vases etc. again the workmanship was impressive to watch and the lunch was excellent, who would have imagined a two story top of the line restaurant above a factory?

Our last stop on the tour was a traditional tea house, sound boring? In fact it was not. We watched our tea lady produce various different brews and got to taste each one, I am not a tea person but there were interesting and different flavours, none that I had trouble drinking, and this from a milk and sugar guy.

After we returned to the hotel from our tour I popped off to an art gallery and even made a purchase! I am sure that the rest of our group think I went to a sporting house but not so. (Bill ask me about this when I get there). I am currently on line in a bar that obviously has internet access. You wouldn’t believe it, the dunnies are two flights up, did I piss the stair monster off?

Another all day travelling tomorrow, we leave early for Tokyo and then to Guam for an overnight and then to Yap. Yeah.

---

Photos

The Emporers new clothes
or got a shot of the big guys T shirt