Took the plunge and did the Great Wall! The walk to the start of it almost killed me...god the number of steps you have to walk up is amazing...and here's me who smokes 20 a day...humm! Anyway the views are fantastic but the walk is both steep upwards and downwards...so I wouldn't say its for the faint hearted! Still enjoying Beijing and still have loads to do. Went to the Temple of Heaven which was a lovely walk. One of the things I have noticed about Beijing is they have some fantastic parks that are easy to to get to and walk through. You have to pay for entrance to everything here, but thats life! We all found a really basic restaurant round the corner the other night and we had a meal and one large beer..which came to 13 yuan...basically it cost us a pound...hee hee this is the life! As we were all sooo very tired last night from our walk on the Great Wall we all agreed drastic measures was in order....so we arranged for the hotel to order in pizza...yes I know things don't change!! Also bought a bottle of red wine which I have to say went down quite nicely! Anyway back to the pizza...it arrived and guess what it was heart shaped...not sure what that ones about but hey1 It was pretty good too! Still haven't finalised my next stop but hey it doesn't matter as in no rush! Will probably visit some more parks today with the expectation of going to the Summer Palace tomorrow....further updates soon