Great Wall, Beijing & Soft Sleeper

Alarm went off an hour early at 6am (a great start to the day for the whole group) then after breakfast we travelled straight to the Great Wall Of China which took a couple of hours due to traffic. I didn’t realise how steep it would be! 99 flights of stairs, two bottles of Coca Cola and 50 minutes later and we’d walked as far as the guide would let us and got a spectacular view. After we were worn out our tour guide decided to take us to a Jade Factory. It was all beautiful but far too expensive for any of us. Our lunch was different to what we had had before as it was apparently more of a typical countryside meal so consisted of light, cold vegetables like pickled radish. We then drove back into Beijing to visit the Temple of Heaven and play some Chinese games in the park with the locals. As we had some time to spare before our dinner we went to a market. My haggling skills surprised me as I managed to get something from 850 to 100 so bought a few gifts. Then after dinner we went straight to the Sleeper Train towards Xi’an. The compartments are small and cramped and the toilet is temperamental but I was glad to be laying down after a busy day. 7 of us squeezed into a carriage to play card games and I introduced them all to 52 card pick up.Read more