Day 6 Beijing - the Wall at last

So today, we eventually made it to the Wall. We decided just to book on a tour, so at 11pm last night, the hotel arranged a tour for us. Worked as clockwork - arrived at 7:30am, got there just after 9am, pancakes and coffe for breakfast, 4 hours on the wall - accompanied by crowds of noisy, unruly Chinese school kids, but beautiful views, despite the mist (maybe we'll go back one day on a nice clear day!). Mutianyu is touristy, but not the most touristy place on the wall. We walked all the way to one end of it, then all the way to the other - it's actually very steep, and in some parts quite difficult, even on this 'developed' bit.

One of the highlights was a toboggan run - at the end there was a 1.5km metal run down to the bottom - you ride on little carts - it was fab - we were a bit late for the driver, as we had to wait until it was fully dried until they opened it. Lots of fun - Neve went with Ross, and Felix and I had our own carts - Felix was first, and was almost caught up by Ross and Neve (Ed - who did use the brakes much!); I obeyed the 'slow down' signs and arrived a good 5 mins after everyone else!

After this, our 'tour' took us for a delish lunch of various Chinese food - including the ubiquitous Kung Po Chicken.

Back in Beijing we walked to another market - v realistic rip off i-pods and watches; I later regretted not buying a $4 fake Gucci which was very pleasing on the eye! (but Ross thought I was being very sad so wouldn't let me buy it!)

Then, to top the evening off, we went to the Red Theatre to watch tehe Shaolin Monks - most impressive, and you buy tinnies and take them to your seats!

 guess how we did these!

 Hoards of school kids... and Aussies dressed as pandas!

 At the far reaches of the 'developed' wall, it turns 'wild. What was frustrating was that this particular section was only a few towers beyond where we'd managed to get to yesterday!

 ...bit misty, but you could see the Wall stretching out into the distance, which was amazing

 Like father, like daughter, Kawaii!!

 Neve looks very different to most Chinese (and Japanese) children, so tended to get rather a lot of unwelcomed attention - this guy was a harmless but somewhat over-friendly vendor who pretended to be doing Kung Fu: this picture was accompanied by lots of 'hwaa' and 'wiooo' etc.!

 Arty shot!

 "Do I really have to post for any more bloody pictures!"

 ... and the piece de resistance - the toboggan run!

 You can just about see it stretching over the brow of teh hill - in total it was 1.5 km long! It was such fun

 The Red Theatre

 Us with our snax and beer in the Red Theatre

The Monks - they were very agile, and clearly felt no pain!

Beijing - Day 5

On Day 4 we arranged the the driver from the Beijing office to drive us out to the Great Wall. The easy to reach parts of the wall are very touristy so we decided to be a bit more adventurous. Plan A was to go to Simatai and then to walk for about 4 hours to get to Jinshanling. However we found out the night before that the wall at Simatai had been closed. Apparently this is a ploy by the Chinese Government to pursuade the locals to sell out to the government so that can build a Disney style Great Wall tourist destination.

We decided to go to Xizhazi village instead and then walk 5 hours to Mutianyu. So we instructed the driver via Johnson in the office. We set off at 0830 as planned and about 2 hours later we arrived at a small village high up in the hills with no sign of the wall. The driver talked to some local guys and then after a number of phones calls to the office it transpired that the driver had no idea where Xizhazi village was! Still he now seemed to know where it was so we set off again with the promise of 30-40 minutes before we get to the correct village. This is where the fun started. 2.5 hours later after numerous stops to ask locals, both kids being sick because the road was so windy, repeated phone calls to the office to translate between us and the driver we arrived at Xizhazi. Nightmare.

By the time we arrived we only had 4 hours to night fall and the walk was five hours. We had no choice but to accept that we could only walk for a couple of hours and then we would have to turn around and come back. To add to this the cloud was very low so the wall was shrouded in thick mist.

However, in the evening the day got a bit better! Despite a 2 hour journey back into Beijing (by the poor driver!) we were taken by Johnson to a renowned peking duck restaurant - very posh - and the kids loved the duck (true Macken stylee we were very underdressed, actually still in muddy boots and Ronhills!) Johnson ordered all the best stuff, and we had these traditional sweet things for starters, which was wierd by tasty, then the duck, then delicious stringy toffee apples for pud!

Beijing - Day 4

Today we needed some retail therapy, so we headed for the Silk Market (Beijing's third most popular tourist attraction!). This is a five story emporium of (presumably all) rip-off gear, all with prices vastly inflated from what you actually pay (we reckoned on getting the goods for around 25% of the asking price).

We bought so much stuff we had to buy a new wheely suitcase! Our cache included Abercrobie and Fitch fluffy fleeces for all of us (except Ross who thought we were really sad! and also who refused to go near the fake shirts, even though they looked fab), a Mah Jong set (which is great and we've subsequently played loads!), 4 CD and 16 DVDs (all of which (so far!) are fine. AND we didn't get stopped by customs, which we were a bit worried about!.

We found a sub-way for lunch - hooray! We then walked through a park, which was interesting, and which had loads of gym stuff (for adults) which was good fun to play on (they seem to have them in lots of Chinese parks) and went to an electronics market which was a bit disappointing, but bought a CD from a Chinese busker who Felix and me liked! We then walked to Ghost Street - a street full of chinese restaurants, lit up with Lanterns - all very pretty. However, the kids refused to go Chinese, so we looked up a 'Western Back-packer' restuarant in the guide, which we found had closed down, but it was really interesting wandering down this more 'local' hutong, and seeing people in their Jammies living in teh streets, and using the stenching public bogs.

We eventually at in 'Grandma's Kitchen'! a rather American Apple Pie establishment, which the kids loved and which did great milkshakes!

Spot who went to the Silk Market

 ...why do we bother buying nice clothes!

 China has some big buildings

 ...you can just see our new, bulging wheely case!

 ...not really sure why we took this - perhaps Neve got the camera - but it's quite a nice pic of old and new and has some of the ubiquitous lanterns shown

Beijing - Day 3

Today, we went to the Summer Palace - this was built for the Emperors (specifically Empress Dowager Cixi) when they wanted to get out of the city! It's basically a very large garden with many lakes (3/4 of it is water), some lovely buildings, and some temples. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit drizzly and really cold (we were rather used to Japan which is very much warmer!). We had a nice day, but actually we found the place rather tacky!

In teh evening, we went back to this really cool Hutong again, Nanluogu Xiang. We found a really cool bar and had a couple of beers and some chips (the Drum and Bell - in between the drum tower and Bell tower), then we walked down the Hutong, found a groovy mug shop (bought chinese red-army looking mug, and then T-shirts for Ross and Felix from Plastered). We then ate in a Back-packery bar which was just what the Dr ordered!

 Four animal creature, meant to detect lies and deceit - so if anyone wanted to see the Emporer they had to pass him first!

 There were some pretty lakes and trees

 Felix likes to look lovely in Photos

 This was the philosopher's bridge where two philosophers famously discussed whether the fish were having fun or not - Ross can be seen acting out the play of this discussion on said bridge.

 This was Suzhou Street - a facade of shops built to entertain the bored Emperor and Empress. Apparently they were manned by the maids and Eunuchs and sold stuff imported from miles away.

 To be honest, it was all rather tacky, and had lots of people trying to sell you stuff!

 This was a marble 'boat' (which didn't move) built by the Empress (from funds misappropriated from the Chinese navy! Although our book said the if she hadn't embezzled this money, and it had rightly gone for the Chinese Navy, they'd have been flounced by the British Navy on their maiden voyage, so with hindsight, this was probably a more investment providing more longevity for these squandered funds) there's a mirror up high on the top deck so she could imagine she was on the sea

 This long walkway was built so granny didn't get wet!

 This stone was imported hundreds of miles becuase it looked like a mushroom. Apparently they ran out of funds halfway through its voyage, so it had to take temporary resistance somewhere en route until they got some more cash!