Today we took a trip to visit the great wall. It was a long drive out, but Chen filled it by telling us about the countryside and other information about Beijing (he seems to know everything there is to know about Beijing).

We got the cable car up to the wall itself and Liam and I had the pleasure of riding in the seventh living Buddha’s cable car (he wasn’t there, he just rode in it once so the marked the car with a sticker), which was pretty cool. Much cooler than riding in Bill Clinton or John Major’s!
Anyway, I digress, as you’d expect the wall was stunning. We were there early and there were no other tour groups there when we got there. This was great because it gave us time to take some pictures like those you see in magazines of the wall, but also to enjoy the champagne which Chen had brought along to celebrate the trip. We the wandered the wall for two hours which progressivally got busier and busier before returning to the centre point for sandwiches.

On the trip back we fought our way through the tat sellers, before returning to Beijing for a stop at the birdsnest and watercube Olympic stadiums. We used our visiting time well be having our own Oriental Travel Egg and Spoon race outside the birdsnest. I won bronze!

Home now to pack because tomorrow we leave Chen and Beijing for Xi’an!