It's our last full day in Beijing and it is an easy day. No-one seems to have any after effects from the wall climb yesterday except perhaps for Rachel who says she has heavy legs. We don't have to meet until 10am this morning so we can have a later breakfast and. Short walk outside before we get on the bus. We start off in the Hudong or old Beijing. This is a picture of Beijing around 20 years ago before the high rise buildings. Angie, our local guide was born i...

This it it, one of the highlights of our tour. We are all on the bus at 6am to drive about 90 minutes or so to the Great Wall. Today is the Chinese National Holiday so the idea of getting going early is to try and best the traffic do less time driving and more time at the wall. It's cold, about 10 degrees as we set off. We are given a little breakfast pre packed by the hotel. Not good, 2 stale rolls, a bruised banana and a boiled egg and bottle of water. We gave ...

Big day today. On the bus at 7.30am, first early start we have had so far. We start off at the Summer Palace which is a huge man made lake surrounded by gardens and temples. The 2 metre deep lake was dug entirely by hand in 1420 and the subsequent dirt and mud made a hill on which the temple was built. This is as the name suggests the place where the emperors would come to escape the heat of the summer in Beijing as it sits in the mountains. The there is a long p...

This morning we returned to the City Wall and have time to climb the gates we saw last night and to take in some of the history and significance of these gates to the city of Xi'an. The moat that surrounds the wall is now visible too and is a beautifully maintained are of gardens and public park. It's common place top see the Chinese practicing TaiChi or different forms of meditation or exercise in the public parks. We arrive in Beijing just after 8pm after a ni...