Goodness, Gracious, Great Wall of China

Yesterday Claire and I took a day trip north of Tianjin to visit the Great Wall.

We spent a lovely three hours on the train there chatting to some students and miming to their parents. When we arrived in Ji Xian we were met by our guide Diana and our cavalier chauffeur, Mr Wong. It was a 30 minute drive through the lush green country side to the wall at Gyuan - actually, it probably should have taken longer, but Mr Wong had a rather lax interpretation of the road rules as do many of the drivers around China.

The wall was amazing, we were right in the middle of a valley and it went soaring up among the jagged mountains to either side of us. Diana accompanied us most of the way up but had to turn around at the last bit, which I thought was fair enough considering that she was trying to do it in high heels. The final section was so steep that I climbed it using all fours, and had to crab crawl back down. It was worth it though, the view was spectacular and we were pretty much the only people there.

After the climb we ate lunch, saw a few temples in town and then Diana put us on a bus home. The bus was a decrepit mini-van and most of the trip was spent chugging along at about 30 km/h. It was the worst bus trip ever, but it was fascinating to see the effects of rampant growth on rural and sub-urban China. As we got closer to Tianjin we passed the factory workers spilling out after their shifts, heading home on their bikes or stopping to eat at roadside carts.

By time we made it back to the hostel, over 3 and a half hours later, we were caked in dust. We washed and decided to head out for dinner. Claire took me to a restaurant so that I could try lots of authentic Chinese dishes. We had Sichuan hot-pot, Peking duck, sweet and sour pork, and lamp (lamb) skewers. It was all incredibly tasty - but never fear, it was all at a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant so it was fake meat!

Today we meet the group we'll be travelling the Trans-Mongolian with, which means heading back to Beijing on the express train - travelling about 350km/h, it should be snappier than yesterday's bus ride.