Not even sure where to begin with todays blog! To begin with i'm far too tired to write anything coz we've been up since 5am so i just feel like jumping straight into bed.

Anyway... This morning started with a 4 hour bus trip to Simatai on the outskirts of Beijing where we were dropped off at the bottom of a valley that lead up to the first section of the Great Wall. From there we trekked for about 20 minutes up the side of the mountain to the summit where we reached the Wall for the first time! After spending a good 15 minutes taking in the spectacular views/waiting for Jules to change his trousers we started "walking" along the first section of the wall. I've put walking in quotes because it was more like mountaineering! We had no idea how steep some sections of the wall are, and didn't realise that we would be climbing the steepest part of them all! We spent the next 3 hours dragging ourself up broken inclines and scarily steep decents in the heat of the afternoon (which we had been told would be freezing cold, so we all went dressed in jumpers & multiple layers of T-shirts). The walk ended with a bridge crossing over a still blue lake at the bottom of a small gorge. What we didnt realise was that to get to the bottom of the gorge we could take a 300 metre long zip-wire right across the water! I'll attempt to put one of the video's online at some point but until then all i can say is that we all agreed it was one of the most amazing things any of us have ever done!!!

To top off the day we were treated to a gormet meal at one of Beijing's most exclusive 5-Star restaurants on the edge of Tian'anmen Square by our legendary room-mate The Saint! The menu for the evening included Chrysanthamum Tea, Peking Duck pancakes and all sorts of other duck delecacies including tongue, foot, chest, brain, heart and duck-bone soup!

To finish off the evening we had a stroll around Tian'anmen Square where the buidings were all lit up and looked even more amazing than they did during the day!