After having the luxury of not getting up before 9am since Nepal we were rudely awaken by the alarm clock at 6 this morning. The reason....we were heading to The Great Wall of China - hoorah! We chose to go on the trek along the wall from Jinshanling to Simatai after a recommendation from one of the guys at the hostel. It was about 10km and very steep and stony in places but it was an absolutely amazing experience. As it is out of season everything was shut (including the toilets so our sorrowful claim to fame is that we actually weed on the wall - very sorry to our mum's and to the Chinese people but it was an emergency). The great thing was with a few delaying tactics you could leave the rest of the party behind and have miles upon miles of Great Wall all to yourself. It felt really good to be trekking again and for the first time since getting to China we were able to peel off the top 3 layers of clothing. It was a beautifully clear day and we could see for miles - the wall just went on and on and on....they don't call it the Great Wall for nothing you know! We scrambled and slipped up and down the very steep inclines and declines and in some parts we were almost on our hands and knees climbing up to the watchtowers. It definitely wasn't a nice, sedate section of the wall to tackle but it was a fantastic challenge! The funny thing was that even on this terrain hawkers popped up trying to sell us postcards and books which was just hysterical. Even when you thought they had given up you looked around and they were legging it down and up the side of the mountain to meet you at another section of the wall! They did eventually leave us alone to enjoy the scenery and atmosphere. At the end of the trek we took the Flying Fox down to Simatai. This was a zip wire which flew down over a big lake and it was well worth it even though it lasted for only a minute. Steve had a bit of a run in with the harness so he may not be fathering any children in the future! After an amazing day we headed back to the hostel to compare wall stories with the other backpackers over a 30p bottle of beer....it's cheaper than a cup of tea and for the sake of the budget it would be rude not to!