Finally - It's The Wall and the Ming Tombs

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In Josh's words we saved the best to last. Today we visited the Great Wall. We hired a car and driver through the hotel and were joined by one of Stephen's expat work collegues Tien and her husband Ramon. We headed out to the Mutianyu section of the great wall which the guide book recommends for it's great views.

I did read in the book that there is a cable car you can take to get up to the wall and a tobbogan ride down. Me having a fear of heights thought okay I'll be brave, I'll take one for the family and ride the cable car - it's enclosed as long as no one shakes the cabin and I keep my eyes closed it'll be okay. So off we go and buy our tickets, we then head off to the cable car only to discover the tickets we have bought are for the chair lift yiiiiiikkeess. Oh nooooo, we head of to the chair lift, needless to say after a terrifying, explitives uttered while filming the ride, with Lachie beside me say "mum you are conkering your fears", and Josh yelling out in front of me "Are you panicking yet Mum?" - I made it to the top in one piece - It's a very long ride up, especially if you are afraid of heights, I just was soooo greatful that the breeze (an icy one at that was just a breeze).

It was sooo worth it, the wall is an engineering marvel and the views were magnificent. I just wish that we were further into spring as the wall kind of blended in to the surrounding hills at some points. We had a wonderful time up on the hall treking as far as we could in one direction from the chair lift. Tien and Ramon were great company and once again we got some great family shots. Lachie had boundless energy and was often way off ahead of us. We had several laughs at the expense of other visitors to the wall, mainly at the inapproprietly dressed young girls.

The tobbogan ride down from the wall was alot of fun I was assured by the boys - my experience was mixed and Stephen who got stuck behind me was lets just say frustrating.

Once we got off the wall Tien did some fantastic negotiating with the hotel and the driver and managed to get the driver to stop by the Ming Tombs on the way home. The drive through the mountains, villages and the countryside was very interesting. The Tombs did nothing to excite the boys, more colourful wooden buildings and stone statues of dragons, however when we got to the Spirit Way and the Great big stone statues of elephants, horses, guards, dragons etc they were quite a bit more excited.

This will most likely be my last blog entry as we head off to Singapore on Monday night, our next couple of days will be packing and some shopping. Stephen will most likely add to this blog on his next visit to China probably at the end of April.

To those of you in Australia who might be reading this - hope to see you soon.

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Photos

The Magnificent countryside
The wall is located in some magnificent and dramatic country side

The climb ahead of us
We had quite a steep climb ahead of us, we made it to the top of that ridge.

Another Family Shot
Us on the Great Wall Yay !!

Mutianyu Great Wall
The wall snakes across the ridges

Emporer Chang LIng
On our way back we visited the Mausoleum of Emporer Chang Ling

The statues of Spirit Way
One of the statues that are on the Spirit way leading to the Ming Tombs

Comments

[Michelle Duggan]

You brave woman Annie !! Love Lachie's comment about conkering your fears.Good on you ;) You all look wonderful. Stay safe & I'll look forward to the next blog. Happy Birthday to Steven for Sunday xxxx