Day 5 - The Really Great Wall and Donkey Dumplings

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Got up early to test our "secret gate" to the Summer Palace. Upon entry we were a little surprised to see that other Chinese may have had there own method of early access. Still, there were not many people and our smaller team of Stel, Sin and me took advantage of the perfect blue sky weather and shutter clicked our way to the entrance of the palace itself where we patiently waited for the ticket office to open. We certainly beat the crowds and were the first sprinkle of nomads to get to the top.

Back to the hotel for a hearty non-Chinese breakfast of granola, blueberry pancakes and eggs florentine, and then off to the Great Wall. Stel had done the Wall before, so decided to take the opportunity to use the day to catch up on her studies.

It is the last day of the holidays here in China, so Ying Chu, our guide, decided on a less visited but picturesque portion of the Wall, the Moshikou Pass. Lao Liu (support car driver), Ying Chu and I were still suffering from serious calf damage and this portion of the Wall was certainly a test of strength and stamina. Lao Liu was the first to turn back, whilst we pressed on higher and higher up the mountain and the extremely steep steps. About 70m from the top, the Wall finally got the better of me and I gave up, turned around, and proceeded to climb down. The team pressed on finally reaching the top of the mountain before turning back. For those of you skeptics who can't fathom how a wall could be effective against an enemy, not only is this wall a marvel of human achievement (originally covering 8,000km), but any Mongol army would have reached the wall exhausted and hungry, to face a fresh Chinese army shooting arrows and pelting rocks from above. I am proud to say that I was defeated by the Great Wall of China although my younger, fitter, rugby playing sibling took the wall in his stride.

On the way back, famished from yet more climbing, we stopped off at a roadside restaurant for some local food. Much to the horror of budding vet, Sinclair, I ordered "donkey dumplings", a local favourite. I'd promised myself to be adventurous and open minded on this trip. Donkey meat is reverred in China as one of the top land meats, and comparable in quality, taste and texture to the top sky meat, that of the Dragon. They brought us about 40 dumplings, and between the three of us (with Sin abstaining), we must have finished about 15 of them. They tasted like normal pork/cabbage dumplings that had gone rotten! Still, job done and exhausted we returned to our hotel rooms, and I finished the day exhausted and in pain with room service Tuscan bean soup and a club sandwich.

Tomorrow, The Forbidden City, Bird's Nest and The Water Cube....

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