The Great Wall and the Great Warriors

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Saturday 6th November

We set off on the local bus to a town halfway between Beijing and the Wall. Here we were to catch a minibus but "No" said the local taxi men "this bus he finish at 10" (slightly suspicious as it was five past!). Thus began the greatest negotiating this side of Hope car boot sale. "480 yuan" cried one chap. " No" said we, "280 at most" - cue canned laughter from his backing dancers (no spandex thank goodness). Eventually we agreed on a deal and off we went.

Second ride in a chinese taxi (read random man with car) and second episode near death weaving through lorries and bicycles at at monstrous 10 MPH. We made it to the Jinshanling section car park (this section is quieter and still fairly old without mass comercialism) and went to collect our tickets our faithful driver - lets call him Parker - waited as agreed for our return.

A cable car up, and the wall was revealed in all its splendour. It really was fantastic and We hiked a good 3 km along before dropping down a pass to meet our car. The weather was superb (just like at home we hear) and we could count 30 + watch towers streching out into the milky distance on the ribbonlike wall. Kasia - her hiking legs honed by all those shopping trips - even managed to drop a Mongolian bookseller after a chase of some many minutes ( We thought that wall was to keep out the hordes).

The Wall was one of the key reasons for our visiting China and it didn't dissapoint.

Back to Beijing and to the Night Martket. Gulp. It made the other night's affair look like Subway. Specialities that we just didn't have room for included: Sheeps Penis (thoughtfully twirled around a skewer for your pleasure), Snake, and some sort of carb thing with a bum bigger than its head.

Sunday 7th was the day for the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Both were superb and very large. We did feel the Summer palace had the edge, but they were all great to spend some time in. After a quick (3 times, don't blame Kasia either - this man loves a bargain) visit to a cheap knockoff market we headed to the train station for insane crazy queues and a good deal of phlem, and also to get our sleeper train to Xi'an. Bye Beijing, you crazy bloody thing.


Xi'an -The warriors and a few fat Pandas:

Arrived in the morning of Monday the 8th in Xi'an. Thanks must go tour Chinese roomies for keeping the snoring and sleep talking to a minimum. Xi'an is smaller than Beijing but rather more full on (read filthy with added phlem) but worthy every second for a great hostel and the Terracotta Warriors.

We caught the bus out of the city at half 11 the same day after dumping our bags and had a wonderful few hours wandering round the various halls filled with exposed archealogical digs and thousands of clay figures all larger than life sized. We won't go into details about why they're there as it would take ages but they're pretty astounding.

Tuesday the 9th was Panda day! We had avoided Beijing zoo as it had been likened to death row but we really wanted to see some. Our hostel offered a trip to a breeding reserach centre to see the rescued and captive bred Panda, the latter of which will be released into the wild.

All in we saw 11 Pandas (Panda?) including 5 babies which entertained us by playing on their swing (yep, swing) and pulling each other out of trees. Seeing these Pandas was really amazing.

All in all we are loving our trip so far, we are keeping well and happy. Apolgies for the lack of photos, we'll remedy this when we get a good computer.

xxx

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Comments

[Kate Burford]

Jealous Much!
Well it certainly sounds like you pair have got off to an amazing start of the Kasia & Tom World Tour.... very jealous that you guys are out there doing the backpacking thing! Although I can't say I'm that bothered about Twirly Sheep Dick on a Stick.... making me wonder about the origin of Turkey Twizzlers now..... FYI bump is really stretching my tummy now, 3 weeks to go - believe it or not! All is well :-) Keep us all posted about the next leg of the adventure, I look forward to getting the email saying there is more blog to read!!! Kate xxx