Bright and early start this morning for our trip to the Great Wall of China. Our local guide Alex collected us from the hotel and 7:30am and we drove for three hours out to Jinshanling.

Once we got there Alex and I went to acquire the tickets to get in, we distributed them to the group and then we had to hike up to the Wall. The steps were very steep, but we went slowly so it wasn't such a problem. Occasionally we would stop for pictures, you could see parts of the wall on the crest of the surrounding mountains as well as watch towers where guards had stood keeping a look out for invading Mongols.

Once at the top and standing on the wall, we began our walk. The first tower we reached was called dark tower, so named because once it had caught fire and a young girl had tried to put there fire out, but then the tower was struck by lightening killing the girl. More like bad luck tower to me.

We hiked about a kilometer of the wall, there were lots of uneven steep steps and it was really rough in places. The views were absolutely amazing, especially when you looked back from where you had come from. You could see the wall stretched out behind you and framing the crests of the mountain for as far as the eye could see. This particular part of the wall now separates Beijing province from Gobi province, but once it had been used to keep out invaders.

I got as far as little tower and decided to stay and chat to Alex for a bit, who was standing around waiting for people. He attempted to teach me some Mandarin, the only thing I remember is sieh sieh or thank you. I need to study up for when I see him next as he said he will test me.

We hiked back down, which actually only took Alex and I about twenty minutes, I was amazed at how fit I have gotten in the last couple of months. Two months ago, a trek like that would have killed me.

We were early to the meeting point and we sat and chatted and waited for the passengers to trickle back in. We had to wait quite a while as Matt and Alan had been caught out in the cable car queue and were running a bit late. We then settled in for the long drive back to Beijing. When we got there I thanked Alex for a lovely day and then went off to do some paperwork and after that ended up at McDonalds with Rachel.

I also did some shopping for the train tomorrow and had the brilliant idea that a Subway foot long would be a really good idea. I also bought various other snacks, not really with any idea what half of them were, but that's all part of the fun.

After my shopping expedition I went back to the hotel for an early start, tomorrow I am up at 5am to lead a group on the greatest train journey in the world!