Well we arrived in Datong during a monsoon.

10 mins after arriving the roads had turned into rivers.

Thankfully by morning it had stopped.

Our next challenge was to get ourselves to the yungang caves from Datong,a town where hardly anyone speaks English.

After not having much luck with the buses we ended up taking a taxi there 🙂 then got the bus back.

The buddah’s at the caves were amazing 🙂

We also got a quick visit to the hanging monastery another amazing place.

Then it was time to move on to Xian.
Which meant we had a 16 hour train journey to look forward too

Now at Beijing west train station

It’s an experience in it’s self 🙂

Catching the train to Datong.

A 7 hour train journey on a hard seat, not too sure what to expect.

Looking at the amount of people waiting for the train this looks like it’s going to be a very interesting journey.

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Today we joined the Beijing hikers for a walk.

Due to the very heavy rain only 7 out of the expected 19 turned up for this walk.

The walking route also had to be changed due to the very heavy rain.

Sure you get the message ….. It was raining very heavy.

But what else would we do on such a foul day 🙂

It was a 2 hour drive to the starting point.

Then it was a long climb up to what they said was the highest point of the wall called The High Tower at a height of 1440 m

Where we took some misty photos and had a quick lunch before starting the long slippery decent.

A total of 9 miles in 5 hours.

By the time we reached the bottom the sun was out and we were beginning to dry out.

So we enjoyed our beer and nibbles in the sunshine.

Then this evening we tried our first chinese massage .

Geoff was brave and had the calf massage but I heard the cries of pain 🙂

I had the back massage and also cried in pain

At one point he straddled me and i thought he was going to break my back as it cracked under the pressure.

But funnily enough it also felt good.

Luckily we escaped the cupping but part of me would have liked to have experienced it
🙂

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Today we had our first taste of the Great Wall

We hiked from Jinshanling to Simatai

Some of the Simatai wall is closed for the next 2 years for renovation work

So we could only walk 22 towers and not the usual 30

When we woke I was so upset to see it was raining heavy but luckily for us it did not spoil the walk, just some of the views

It was a long day over 6 hours in a mini bus for 3 hours walking

But the wall is amazing

Tomorrow we have a very early start as we are walking with the Beijing hikers , it will be a very challenging walk for us 🙂

Arrived here in Beijing around midnight.

To find it’s almost as hot as Dubai which we did not expect

We are at downtown backpackers for the next 4 nights.

Hopefully we shall be walking along the wall on Friday 🙂

I have had my first cup of tea in china, I choose Jasmine.

It’s now 1.30 am here so time for bed.

BTW facebook or twitter don’t seem to work here 🙁 and you cannot seem to up load photos either 🙁

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Today we entered the world record books and went (nearly) to the top of Burj Khalifa.

The highest building in the world.

It took 6 years to build has over 200 floors and 57 lifts.

Our journey only took us to the 124 th floor but we experienced fabulous 360 degree sweeping views.

Our only disappointment ……. Not being able to walk up the stairs.

Apparently it takes an hour to walk to the 124 th floor

Tomorrow we leave the 100 deg heat of Dubai and continue on our journey to Beijing 🙂

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