Sure, Yeah, Uh-hu - Michelle's 3 favourite words...

Day 23 - 27/10/09 - Beijing (China)

Today we got up early and had breakfast before our driver took us to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. This section of the Great Wall is further away (about 1.5 hours from our hotel) than the Badaling section that we went to a few days ago.

Mutianyu has 2 chairlifts to get to the wall, and a toboggan to get back down. There is also tracks to walk to the wall, but where is the fun in that?

We took the chairlift that went to the higher section of the Wall, then walked to the other chairlift and toboggan, and took the toboggan down. This was the best toboggan ride we had been on and we were tempted to go back up for another turn.

Mutianyu was beautiful and had much different scenery to Badaling. The Wall was wider and less steep and there was a lot more Wall that you could see. We loved both sections of the Wall, however Mutianyu would be where we recommend people go, as it is less crowded and looks more like the sections of the Great Wall that you would imagine. We had a traditional lunch at the wall which consisted of Subway (pretty close to the real thing too) :P

This afternoon was spent relaxing after our big morning.

Day 24 - 28/10/09 - Beijing & Xi'an (China)

This morning was a lazy morning as we did not have to check out of our hotel until Midday. We checked out at midday and then walked to the post office, to send back some purchases which were taking up too much room in our backpacks. This was an adventure in itself, and we had a group of postal workers crowding behind the lady trying to serve us. We were the days entertainment for them.

After lunch at our favourite Beijing bakery (Golden Phoenix) we headed to the Olympic Stadium & Water Cube. Walking around here felt more like we were at the zoo and we were the star attractions. As we sat resting for a few moments, there were half a dozen people that would walk past taking photos, and another dozen just stared as they walked past.

As we walked around, there were also the 3 or 4 people that needed to have photos with us. When we got into Beijing, Michelle advised us that people wanted photos with us as they do not get many foreign tourists, most tourists are Chinese, so to have a photo with us, they can show everyone that they met foreigners.

On the way back to the hotel lobby we stopped for coffee/a light meal before Michelle took us to the station to catch our sleeper train to Xi'an and we said goodbye to Beijing.

Our sleeper train was very long (18-20 or more carriages), and we were on carriage 2. The room was very small, with 2 sets of bunks, a small table and a window.

Take care - Jess & Scotty