The Great Wall, Badaling, China.

Well, due to circumstances beyond our control, today started just after midnight yesterday, with us standing at a baggage carousel in Beijing airport, forlorn, tired and rucksack less. After about half an hour's waiting both appeared and we wont out into the concourse to be met by Juan Fangio who whisked us through the light Beijing traffic as though his arxe was on fire. If I'd has a means of ignition, it would have been. He dumped us at the end of a wee lane at the end of another wee lane and grunted something unintelligible whilst holding his hand out. I've managed to ignore this gesture from the Romanians on Morningside Road & Princes Street, so no difficulty with this guy.
Checked in to our small-but-beautiful hotel and went to bed circa 01:30. Cold and an undersize downie kept us awake for a while, and ensured an early arousal ( ). Breakfast was GOOD, and we were collected by my ex-business friend, Gouping, plus driver @ 08:30. Off we went towards the distant northerly mountains and in due course arrived at the carpark at Badaling, the most accessible section of the 12K Km Great Wall of China. Wow and thrice Wow!

Never thought until recently that I/we would ever be here, and now here we were. Sue got quite emotional about it all, then steeled herself and we strode on up the "smooth" section. This gradually got steeper until steps were necessary, and these became more and more inconsistent as we ascended towards the highest point. Our climb was interrupted several times by requests for photographs with locals. This has been going on for 3 months and is getting a bit warring, but we try to accommodate these innocent requests, but woe betide the first Chinaman I happen across on Princes Street this summer.

After 1 hour up and 50 minutes down, we went for lunch and then to the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) Emperor's tombs at Dingling. These were only relatively recently found (1956), and only the 13th, that of Emperor Wanli (1563 - 1621) and his two Empresses, has so far been excavated. To be honest it was a bit disappointing - just 5 large tunnel shaped chambers now containing replica coffins, red, Emperors & Empresses for the use of, and some fancy heavy doors, however the exhibited goodies extracted from the tomb, all gold & shinny, were worth the looking.

Final visit was to the Bird's Nest - the 2008 Olympic Stadium -about 20 km north of Beijing city centre. Thronging with Chinese tourists, predominantly "works trips" of mainly manual workers. This National Stadium is a spectacular construction of 43\K Te of steel, with many photo opportunities which, in the main I was not able to exploit due to a wobbly lens and a surfeit of heads.

We said our farewells and heartfelt thanks to Guoping and headed back to our hotel courtesy of her driver. Rush Hour struck and that journey took about 1 hour for 5km. Help was at hand in the form of a wee bar selling Murphy's. Bad news, £5 for 500ml. 3 of these later, went for a sandwich and then withdrew to our room to sort out a photo and this screed.

Shattered, we retired, with a second downie.

PS, we made it to the highest point!