One of the big highlights of going to China for me was the Great Wall Of China, and luckily it did not disappoint. I think this was the only time on the trip that I was thankful for the snowy conditions because I really think we saw the wall from such a unique viewpoint as the snow made it look so beautiful and even more of a great achievement by hiking up the wall in these conditions.
I have to say the part of the wall that we were taken to was very steep in places and definitely not for the faint hearted. I had always pictured it to be a gentle path along the wall meandering across the hills, which I’m sure in some places it probably is but not this part. The steps were very big in places and took lots of energy and as the wall is so busy you don’t have too many choices to stop and rest as everyone keeps up the pace. The higher up you go the crowds do thin out a bit and you do get a much better experience. The view at the top of our section was completely breath-taking and I remember having a real moment of feeling proud and privileged to be actually standing on the Great Wall of China.
Honestly if you ever get the chance to go and see it you must. We were only there for a few hours but I would of gladly spent the rest of the day exploring but who knows where I would of ended up!!!
After all this activity we had a little rest on the coach while we made our way over to a local jade factory. This was very interesting to see the craftsman at work and all the different colours and things crafted were very interesting.
After lunch here we made our way over to the Summer Palace which is the largest and most well preserved royal park in China. It’s based around a huge lake and we took a dragon boat out to experience all the sights and take in the views. It was very pretty here and the artwork on the wooden beams were amazing and must have taken so much time and attention to create such a wonderful effect.
The evening topped the day off as we were taken to the local theatre to watch a live acrobat’s performance. I wasn’t expecting much from this if I am honest but there were about nine acts in total and they were all fantastic. They included Gymnasts jumping through hoops and contorting bodies to balancing 10 people on top of each other while riding a bike!! .
The act of the night had to be the Motorcycle riders who drove into a metal circular cage and drove the full circumference of the cage. Sounds scary ………even more so when in total at one point there were seven guys in this thing all driving around missing each other by millimetres. I could barely watch but brilliant entertainment.
My next Blog is onto Xian and the warriors so look out for that……