We were up very early this morning, to beat the crowd to the Great Wall, it was easy to wake with excitment in the veins.

Predicted to be a bit cold and some showers, we were all geared up to take on the wall.

Well, yes it's just as maginfcient as what you see on TV and in the glossy magazines, the "Wall is Grand"!    They say if you haven't climbed the wall you are not a man! Well Dad, was going to conquer that saying, he was off with others to climb that wall, leaving Cherie and I way behind.

Dad and John got to the top, we were so proud of them - Tower 13.   Cherie and I made it halfway - Tower 9, we both felt the air tighten our chests, with my asthma and Cherie with her chesty cold.

The wall can be seen for miles, one side is higher and has sections cut out for the firing lines, no the wall is not there to keep the rabbits out!    Some of the wall can be very steep in places, it's about 7 metres wide, and 6 thousand kilometres long with watchtowers along the way that were used for signal towers, forts, living quaters and storerooms for provisions.  Apparently the wall bricks are held together with sticky rice, which is kinda weird considering they eat that too, and so did we. Just think about that in your tummy.

The wall was created under Qin Shi Huangdi (22 - 210 BC), unfortunately although impressive it was never effective.  The restored areas by the Ming Dynasty 1500's as there is alot of damage now of the wall, is where we were. The wall was used more for smoke, flare, drum, bell communications, as well as used for the fast transport of troops across the country.

After about 3 hours we left the wall, it was an experience not to be forgotten, the wall snakes along the ridges of the mountains, the stories that go with the actual building of the wall were numerous, alot of lives were lost building the wall.

I had to get Dad a plaque that said he had climbed the wall, nice plaque actually, bronze like the olympic medals.

For lunch we stopped at the Jade Factory, after a presentation about the carving of Jade, always thought to be green, jade can be in fact other colours, brown, black or cloudy white. Inititally used as a tool, jade came to be widely used as jewellery during the Han era. In the Qing period, carvers, were producing a variety of decorative pieces including intricate jade animals.   At the factory there were some beautiful pieces, and when looking at the jewellery we were encouraged to look at the jadeite more so than the jade because it was stronger.   To the Chinese it symbolizes longevity and purity, and is worn to ward off disease.

On the return to the city centre, we stopped for a short look at the Olympic Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, it gave us an idea of how massive the 2008 Olympic site was.   Dad bought every kite available on the walk to see the buildings, along the olympic alley, well it felt that way, yes he got hassled to buy kites and ended up with quite a few.   They were nice kites though.

Our last stop for the day was to the Summer Palace, a retreat for Emperors during the Ming and Qing Dynasty's from the confines of the Forbidden City.   A popular Empress Dowager Cixi, know as the 'dragon lady'  remembered as one of China's most powerful women, had the palace rebuilt twice, the grounds cover 716 acres. She also used funds that were supposed to be meant for the modernisation of the navy, on a large marble boat that is actually made of wood but painted white to look like marble - it sits at the edge of the beautiful Kunming Lake, which occupies three quarters of the park's expanse.    We walked along the waterfront, viewing some remaining lotus (just missed the season, so they were dying off) and we also walked along the long corridor walkway that was decorated with over 14,000 scenic paintings.

Cherie and Dad were haggling a price on an item in a market area within the palace grounds, and it happened, we were warned about where the seller trys to tell you that the money you just gave them is fraudulent and they hand back a note that is confeit, Cherie luckily picked it up straight away and they got a good price and no-one got ripped off.

We had two hours free time at the Summer Palace, on our return we lost Dad so we all panicked, but found him happily on the bus.

Our dinner was special tonight, we got to try Peking Duck - the Imperial meal - best known dish in North China. The duck is carefully dried, then brushed with a sweet marinade before roasted over fragrant woodchips.    The chef carved it, for us to put the meat, sliced cucumber, scallions and special duck sauce into small pancakes - it was delicious. It's quite a dainty meal, as the steamed pancakes are small and only a little amount of duck is placed in the middle.

We also for the first time, tried the wine from China, guess the name of the red wine............?
You'd never guess "The Great Wall", all we can say is - stick with the Australian or French wines!

The day just kept going, we then went to the Acrobatic Show, what a wonderful show, the stars were so clever with all the body bending feats. We particulary liked the boys with the hat juggling and the last act - 5 motorbikes in a ball, buzzing around each other. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures but we bought a DVD.