Jewels of the Orient - Day 5, 20 Oct 2019 - Great Wall of China

Sunday and our trip for today included a visit to the Jade factory and then the Great Wall, I was looking forward to this as I think pretty much everyone was.

The sky was blue today, a lot of the smog had disappeared, Jasmin was very happy that we all got to see a blue Beijing sky!

After breakfast at the hotel (the trip included breakfast and for today only lunch) we jumped back on the bus and made our way to the Jade factory. It wasn't really a factory more a big shop with a tiny area with 2 people making items out of the jade. I think a few people bought someone jade jewellery but we just browsed.

The plan was to head to the Wall and then lunch but there was an accident on the road we were to travel on so we changed our plans and ended up having lunch before we left the Jade place (it was always going to be there) and then went out to the Wall.

The lunch was really yummy and plenty of it. We were at tables of 10 with the food put in the middle on a lazy susan plus some coke and beer. The men were happy about the beer!

After filling our bellies we all made use of the western style toilets before getting on the bus and driving to the Wall.

It's so cool seeing the Wall for the first time. As we're driving into the mountains you start looking out for it, it is an incredible sight. There we many buses and cars when we got to the section we could climb but we expected it to be busy. Everywhere in China is busy.

After Jasmin gave us a rundown on where to go and where we'd all meet up again we had a group photo taken and then went our own ways.

It's steep, so steep and the steps are big you definitely give your legs a work out. It's high, jaw droppingly high! Mum didn't end up climbing it with me which I think was a wise decision. She could still walk around the lower sections. I started climbing and turned around to take a photo of mum and got dizzy just looking back down the short bit I'd climbed up, I was getting worried about the climb back down. After carefully taking a photo and started my climb up.

Amazing, tiring, but amazing. We only had a few hours here which was good but you definitely need longer. If I did have more time I would have gone further but I was just worried I wouldn't make it back to the bus in time if I kept going. Some people powered up and back but I wanted to enjoy being on the Great Wall of China and take in the incredible views. It was a hard slog too so I need a bit of time to rest my legs.

On the way back down, this was the part I was most concerned about as it is so step and I just pictured myself tumbling all the way down, I saw a sign heading of to the left that led to a pathway back down. I took this option. It was right along side the Wall and was a winding, relatively even path down to the main area and car park. If we had of known about it earlier mum might have been able to walk up here and then a short climb onto the Wall itself. I did meet a couple of older ladies who had walked up this path thinking they were on the Wall itself. They were too puffed to actually climb the wall so I showed them how to get onto the actual Wall so they could at least say they'd been on the Wall!

What a great day! Back to the hotel and dinner at the restaurant there tonight. We chose Sweet and Sour pork (yum), fried rice (yum) and Schecuan Chicken (not great). The flavour was fine but the chicken was just bones, not what I expected when I put a piece in my mouth and started chewing. Very odd. We didn't know if you were just meant to eat the bones or elegantly spit them out. Either way I didn't have any more of it, mum just chewed on the chicken pieces.

Tomorrow: Chinese Herbal Medicine and the Bullet Train to Zhengzhou