Hi people, Today we ventured to the Great Wall. What a day! It started raining almost as soon as we set off on our five mile hike from one part of the wall to another. Luckily we had umbrellas so we didn't get too wet (from the waist up atleast!). But then the storm set in... One lad told us how he saw sparks come off his umbrella, which was pretty scary so we hid out in one of the towers for a while until we dared to venture out again. After a while, we decided to make a run for it to the next tower, as we had to be back at the coach by a 3pm, but as we stepped outside, the sky flashed, I felt my umbrella shake and my whole arm seemed to buzz violently. It all happened so fast but I managed to let go of the umbrella and Dean dragged me back into the tower. Absolutely mad! I thought I may have imagined the whole thing until another group arrived in the tower with a similar story. One of the girls said her whole arm lit up! It was so dodgy up there. As we came down from the wall we saw a police car pass us and I told Dean I had a feeling that something bad had happened. As we reached the end of our walk a woman approached us and asked if we'd seen anything up on the wall because the Chinese officials were not letting anyone up there since someone had been struck by lightening and been killed!!!!...we saw some ambulances pass us on the way out. On a brighter note the Great Wall was really amazing and we're glad we went...not many people can say they've been struck by lightening! Yesterday we ventured to the silk market which is a shoppers paradise. The only problem is you have to barter for EVERYTHING which becomes a bit wearing. They always start ridiculously high as well, so the whole process of getting them down to a decent price is long winded. I picked up some good deals though. Dean and i must have done fairly well at the bartering game as all the Chinese were calling us 'cheap' and 'stingy'. In the bartering world i consider this to be a good thing. Well, bye for now. Tomorrow is our last day in China, our last day in South East Asia and the last day of our trip. A very sad day! Claire x