Despite its appearance as a hotel there is a little lacking in this place of rest.

Alan got out of bed, which feels like it’s made of cardboard, during the night and it shook so much Angela thought it was an earthquake. The toilet is blocked but we have managed to get the tv on - important because we have some free time today but can’t leave the compound.

Today we trekked on Huangyaguan which means ‘Yellow Cliff’, named after the little yellow flowers that grow here. They are not currently blooming but there lots of persimmon tres laden with fruit.

This stretch of the wall is heavily restored and very popular with Chinese tourists. Chairman Mao said “A Chinaman that does not visit the wall is not a good citizen” so they come here in droves.

Our first stop here was the little market stalls where we got the opportunity to buy some old tat to bring home. Look out! It could be coming your way!!

At the bottom of the wall there is a cultural centre. It’s a restored ‘compound’ and really beautiful - worth a visit in its own right. We spent a couple of hours here admiring the gardens and buildings and seeing the displays about how the wall was restored.

We were ushered quickly to a supermarket to buy tomorrow’s lunch. Among the options were vacuum packed chicken feet and pig trotters. We bought bread.

Back at the hotel we had a couple of hours to kill before dinner. Dinner was pretty much the usual fare. As we were enjoying our post dinner chat coloured lights came on, a screen was dropped down and suddenly we were in the town’s hotspot. The restaurant became a karaoke bar!

It soon became an East meets West cultural exchange. The Chinese were very reserved but loved us standing on chairs, waving our arms about, dancing and singing our hearts out. They took lots of video and photos with us - Look out for Angela’s rendition of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep on the Chinese version of YouTube soon!

By 9:30pm it’s way past bedtime here so we finished off the evening, having cleared the bar, with New York, New York and My Heart Will Go On then went to bed.

We don’t think we’ve damaged diplomatic relations but we guess time will tell.