Day 5 In The Big Beijing House

Ni Hao (hello)

An early morning start today with a tour of the Underground Palace and Ming Tombs followed by the Great Wall of China.

Happy days :)

We were picked up at the hotel at 7:30 this morning and greeted by our tour gide Gilan. We then picked up another 3 guests (couple from Romania and a woman from New Zealand) before heading for Ming Tombs, which were about an hour away from the City Centre.

On route our tour guide filled us in with a lot interesting facts about Beijing. (too tired to think what they were just now but will update at a later date once they come back to me)

Anyhow, the first stop at the Ming Tombs was interesting and taught us a lot about the Chinese culture before we went to see how Jade ornaments are made followed by a traditional chinese lunch.

Interesting selection of food.......................

After lunch we boarded the bus and headed for the Great Wall, which took about an hour.

Was expecting great things from the Great Wall and it didnt disappoint. You'll never see anything like it again. How they managed to build it, i'll never know.

We took the ski lift up to the main part of the wall. The ski lift was an experience on its own as we climbed over 1000ft only supported by a foot rest and a bar that 4 of you could fit through. Laura was petrified and in tears on the way up before we finally touched down on the wall.

We took a walk up the first part of the wall in the roasting heat and didnt think we would manage to make it to the top but we pulled through and kept the climb up.

After reaching the top and glancing at the watch we realised that we were short on time and had to get to the bus so didnt have time to catch our breathe before we had to start our discent back to down.

Luckily when we reached the platform where the ski lift dropped off we had two options to get back down.....

Ski lift or................Tabogen :)

And you wont need two guesses to know which one we chose.....

Each of us got in our own tabogen, tested the breaks and then let rip down the track to the bottom of the mountain! It was an amazing experience. So much fun and was a perfect finish to the day.