Ni Hao

For all you serious blog readers out there,today marks our 200th blog post and I can't think of a better subject to be writing about.

One of the main reasons we came to China (apart from pandas) was the reason we had to get out of bed at 5.45am,The Great Wall of China.This structure in parts is more than 2600 years old and is one of the 7 wonders of the world without a doubt.

Our journey took us 110km out of Beijing to visit a section of the wall less popular with tourists,our journey started at Janshanling where we joined the wall and would follow it for a 10km hike to Simitai.

Both Mel and I were a little dubious when we decided to do this hike and when we arrived and saw the first climb we had to reach the wall we thought "Oh Sh*t" our group sped off but we took our time at the back stopping to take in the views across the purple mountains and to look back at the wall in the distance.

We were joined by fellow walkers or so we thought and they helped us learn Chinese and stayed with us right up till Tower 15 at the halfway point where we stopped for a break and food.Then the sucker punch came they wanted to sell us allsorts of souvenirs they had been really nice and helpful and also taught us to count to ten in Chinese!!!! I felt bad and ended up buying a T -Shirt while Mel walked off rolling her eyes,in my defence I bartered her down from 110 Yuan/8 quid to 22 Yuan/ 1pound 50p so I was happy.Considering the wall was built to keep out the Mongolians(the lady pestering me to buy a t-shirt was Mongolian) I nearle said to her that the wall was built to keep you from getting to tourists and selling them crappy t-shirts!!!!

As the group sped off again we decided to slow the pace down and soak in the wall and the history and to think about the million people that died building the thing.To try and put it in perspective this wall runs the equivalent distance of LA to Boston in the USA,so a long long way.

Our walk took us over good sectins and some really deteriorated sections but because it was winter there were only 17 people walking today and it felt like we had the whole wall to ourselves at times. Some of the sections between the towers were so steep and Mel was climbing on her hands and knees due to having short legs!!!!

I am not sure if it happens to everyone when hiking but by the time we were nearing the end both of us had wobbly legs and needed a rest,once we crossed the suspension bridge at Simitai we had one last push up about 100 steep steps till we could rest by all the souvenir shops,luckily I was too knackered to even get my wallet out as there was a nice pre revolution communist hat for sale!!!

It did tick all the boxes and was just as good as we were expecting and the hike was well worth it,although we might not be thinking that tomorrow!!!

A fantastic day today,if you get the chance and have not already been GET THERE.

Lots of Love

M & M

xx