What a brilliant day it has been today. Up at 6am and down stairs for breakfast and then we were collected by Linda at 7:10 but still kept looking for Chas who was at our hotel and heading back to Unn Zud after some time in Tashkent. He eventually turned up and so we rolled on to the next hotel for a French couple working in Abu Dhabi and then on for a Spanish family of four.

Small commuter bus but capable of 11 so we all had plenty of room. Made good friends with Chas during the day and hearing of his experiences in Tashkent which continued over dinner when we got back to the hotel.

Started at the jade shop and were given a good talk and the great opportunity to buy (i guess they all have to have their pitch and commissions) and then on to the tombs/mausoleum of Emporer Shenzong of Great Ming.  We had another good explanation and tour – interesting learning that the Emporer was buried normally in one room and then his wife or wives in adjoining rooms (they usually only had one wife unless she pre-deceased him) but he still was allowed and expected to have concubines who were buried elsewhere in a concubine grave.

Left the Ming tombs and headed off to the Great Wall where we had a traditional Chinese meal on the way to give us strength before heading up for the long walk. We took the chairlift up to the top because it was easier and time restrained but Ian & Chas went up on the cable car – the only restriction was that they had to return the same way whereas we could choose between the chairlift or the toboggan to drop down the book. Jenene and Jon will know where I was, I went from tower 7 and climbed to tower 1 and beyond and then returned to tower 8 & started towards tower 9 before I realized it was time to get on the toboggan.

It was a great experience and i was surprised how hard it was to get up some of those steps. When I got back to the transfer station it was on the toboggan and off down the hill. ll was good fast running until about 90% of the way down and I could see there was a group of 3 in front who were practically stopped. The game has come to an end but what a wizzer of a run up to then.

Back into town and we were eventually dropped at the hotel by “Not English”, the bus driver who was also called Lee. It has been an absolutely brilliant day and certainly worth doing if you are in the area.