A quick visit to China

A big day climbing the Great Wall. Wow it’s spectacular, long/high, hard and busy - it’s nearly 1800 steps for the part we climbed. The bus ride is about 35 km outside Beijing (quite a long time ride to get out of the city - the traffic is pretty horrendous).

Age doesn’t seem to have a big effect on climbing the wall, it seems to be all about perseverance. Climbing in late summer on the hottest part of the day probably not ideal - I started off well, but about 2/3 of the way up I was passed by a Chinese grandmother who must have been on the older side of 75!!! Needed a few rests on the way (bring 💦). Ther’s a souvenir shop selling drinks at about 1,500 steps - a necessity. The photos below really don’t do it justice.

We also had a visit to a jade factory - okay if you’re into jade🤔. Aside from jewellery there were statues etc as well as a jade aquarium (pic below) if you have a spare $1.45M (not including fish).

We also managed to include a trip to the “Summer Palace” - the Emperors sure hade a pretty good life (when they went to the summer palace they got to take their favourites of the 3000 concubines with them - along with their wife 😮).

Had a free night for dinner and Anne, Carl and I walked to a “local” area and found a small very traditional Chinese restaurant. We had a few surprised looks when we walked in. Not sure what we ordered but one dish was offal and another sure had a lot of very hot 🌶.

Back to the hotel and I went to a bar to relax with a soft drink - listened to some John Denver, Beatle songs etc being sung (very well) in a strong Chinese accent.

Tomorrow - more Beijing.Read more