The Sleeping Giant (Beijing, China)

Well after we flew out of Saigon we had to stay the night in Bangkok airport as our flight did not leave until 11.10am the next morning. We thought it best if we hired one of the day rooms for 8 hours. At last that way we can get some sleep.

Flight was non eventful and arrived in Beijing at around 7pm (7 hours behind NZ/ 6 hours behind Aussie). I got off the plane to -2 degrees wearing a T-Shirt, shorts and jandals......... Not the sharpest tool in the shed with that thinking. Did not do anything that night except eat tea and go to bed!!

The next day we got up about 10am (we needed the sleep) and headed to Tienanmen Square. Did not see any tanks rolling down the road but can see how 1,000,000 people could fit in it.......it is massive!!!

Just across the road we find the Forbidden Palace. It closes in 4 hours so thought that would be heaps of time to see it. Boy were we wrong!!! 3 hours into it and we find our legs are sore and just want to find some place warm. It really blew our minds the scale of the Forbidden City/Palace. In the 3 hours we spent there we probably only saw 3/4's of it.

Day 2 Beijing
Up at 7am for our Secret Wall Tour. Carly booked us on it the night before and were told there are no other tourists around and we will go to the original Wall. Well again were we in for a shock!!!! After 2 hours of driving out of Beijing we get dropped off at this remote looking village where a little old man is waving and ushering us to follow him.

I come to look around the group and realised that they all look really really fit!! Bad new for Carly and I we are on another trip that involves a lot of trekking!!! A quick walk (up hill) of about 2km's and we arrive at the Great Wall. At first I thought "Is that it?" but on climbing onto the wall you can take in the scope of how huge this thing really is!!! It stretched as far as the eye could see and all that was going through my head was "how far of this are we walking/climbing?". Our little guide speaks Chinese to us again ushering us to move on. So on we go climbing this wall that is stretching up this mountain.

Now Shane my friend you said to me you wanted to run this monster of a thing. I thought you were nuts then but now I know you should be locked up and have the key thrown away!!!!!

After getting to the top of the peak my lungs were bursting with fire, my legs were going on strike and I was getting pissed off that the English guy next to me was calmly chatting away the whole time with a smoke in his mouth (In his defense he is a great guy that we got on the booze with after the trek). We were looking out over the wall and see that it disappears over this mountain ridge. Again it is mind blowing. I think if I was a Mongolian coming in to invade China for Gangus khan and seen this wall, I would have high tailed it back to my village in Mongolia.

After walking up and down 2 huge peaks we were lucky enough to walk down into the valley and follow a frozen river back to the village for lunch. I think Carly and I enjoyed the frozen river more being there were no hills. Also it was fun watching Neil (English guy spoken of earlier) falling over on the ice and in the water.

Needless to say we did not go to the tourist part of the Great Wall where everything is all gilts a glam. Where you having people selling you all type of creature comforts for your leisurely stroll up the gentle gradient. I think I prefer seeing the Wall with the fire burning in my lungs as it gives you a real appreciation of what scope this wall is.

We spent our last day walking around Beijing taking in the city and the spitting. That night we caught up with the people we went on the trek with by going out for Peaking Duck. The restaurant was nice but can't really comment on the food as we all walked out after checking out the prices. McDonald's was great though and are planning to to try Peaking Duck in Hong Kong.