The Great Wall!

Today was absolutely fantastic. We left the hostel just before 7am & drove the 3 hours or so out to the Simatai section of the wall. It was worth driving the extra distance because apart from our group from the hostel, the place was practically deserted. I would go for long stretches without seeing a single other soul. It wasn't as tough going as I expected, although it was pretty steep at times with huge big steps. Parts of it have obviously been re-constructed really well, but other parts were literally crumbing away & you had to pick your way through the rubble! We covered 10km of it, taking in 30 watchtowers. They say pictures say a thousand words, so here goes...

I've got some more time in Beijing tomorrow & I plan to hit a couple more markets. I'm then on the 5pm overnight train to Xi an. It's even worse than I initially thought... Not only do I not have a sleeper berth for tomorrow, I've also just realised that I'm on the slow train which takes 13 hours instead of 11! Every single other train, & there are 4 or 5 of them, were booked out. I'm sure it will be worth it to see the terracotta warriors.