Beijing - Day 1 - The Great Wall of China and The Summer Palace

Beijing is my new favourite place EVER.  It is fabulous - though I suspect it was more fabulous than normal because the pollution was only at 25.  It goes up to 400 some days!  We had blazing sunshine and it was wonderfully warm.  We arrived on Monday night, but just had the hotel buffet (the hotel was very nice indeed).  They brought out these whole crabs for us, and we had no idea what to do with them.  We had to send them back to get cut open.   Delicious, but a lot of effort for about 2 teaspoons of meat.

We were up early on Tuesday for our big day trip to the Great Wall of China and the Emperor's Summer Palace, which he built for his favourite wife.  We were picked up at 7.30am by Suzie, our guide for the day.  Two cars had been sent for us, so we chose the one we liked the best, which was a mini van - lots of space.  The drive to the wall was about 2 hours, and lots of it was through these local towns, which were full of activity and colour and so interesting to look at.  When we got there, Suzie queued for our tickets and we had a wander around the stalls.  We had to get on a coach for 5 minutes to take us to the cable car area, which was quite a long walk up hill.  I then had to queue with Suzie for 35 minutes to get on the cable car.  Matt and Mary were able to get the lift up, but we couldn't all go.  Absolutely no cutting lines!!  It was a good job we had a guide, or we would never have known about the lift. 

The cable car only took 5 minutes, and went up very steeply towards the wall.  The region is wonderfully mountainous, and it was a lovely clear day.  There weren't too many people there either, compared to when we came down, and the queue was about 5 times as long!  Suzie said that this part of the wall was a bit further away from Beijing, so it wasn't the one that the locals go to.  That one is 3 times as busy apparently.  

Interesting side fact... we learnt that Beijing is a very Feng Shui city because of the mountains on two sides, which is why the Emperor chose it as his capital.

... and then we were at the top and standing on a wonder of the world.  Mary sat and people-watched while Matt and I went with Suzie for a mini hike.  In the photo below, we got as far as the really steep part before we turned back.  It was fabulous up there, and the further you walked, the fewer people you encountered.  Most people stayed really close to the entrance.  The air was so clean and pure, and the shining sun made everything look green and bright.  I absolutely loved it.

Matt got grabbed during our walk to appear on Chinese TV talking about the wall.  He was the only blonde man on this part of the wall, so the (female) presenter beelined for him! Haha!

The Chinese characters on the hill side say 'Loyalty to Chairman Mao'.

The wall was just wonderful, but that was only part of our days adventure.  We got a subway sandwich for the drive and had a little snooze on the hour and a half journey to the Summer Palace.  The palace was very busy because we arrived at 3.30pm, but it still felt very peaceful there. The air felt like a warm summers evening, and so it was fabulous strolling through the vast gardens and around the lake.

We walked a little way around the lake, and then took the dragon boat back to the exit to be picked up by the driver.  We were shattered by the time we got back from our 11 hour long day!  We just had the hotel buffet again for dinner, and an early night!