seahorse and chicken feet..... bon appetite

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5am wake up call!!! - but it was worth it....after a 3 hours bus ride we arrived at Jinshanling the best preserved part of the great wall in inner mongolia for our 10k trek past 32 crumbling watch towers....in 28 degree heat and fighting off postcard, t-shirt, beer and other useless overpriced souvenir sellers. At first it was hard to enjoy appreciate the walk, scenery and peacefulness with mongolians on your case to buy stuff but we soon cottoned on that as soon as you said no money they disappeared!!!

There was alot of walking up and down - 100 steps up and then 100 steps down, some parts had no steps at all and you somehow had to make your way down on crumbling rocks on all fours...at time it seemed never ending but you have no choice but to keep going.

After about 2 hours of walking our legs started to feel like jelly but it was the smokers in the group who were really suffering but we were really happy to see the bridge as that meant the end was in sight. We ended our trek in the simitai part of the wall it is the only part of the Great Walls that still has the original appearance of the Ming Dynasty and is know for its steepness, queerness and intactness.

I am pleased to say we were not the last ones to finish...in our group!...and we really worked up an appetite to we decided to celebrate our heroism by visiting a local food market which had treats such as fruit sticks, dumplings, noodles, meat on a stick, scorpions, silk worms, chicken feet, seahorses on a stick and jelly potatoes!!!!

our muscles have also been stretched to the max so we are off to bathe in some hot springs in xian..

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