7th July 1992 Day 353

The Diary

The bus driver got lost on the way to the Ming Tombs and it took us about 3 hours to get there. It's a shame he found it really. It was crap and very much like being in the London Underground. We also stopped at an expensive souvenir shop on the way, surprise, surprise, but as usual I wasn't tempted.

Me and Ken

After the tombs we went for a Chinese meal with our fellow passengers and the food was pretty good. We eventually made it to the wall and Badaling about 5 1/2 hours after we left the hotel. We had 90 minutes there but I could easily have stayed longer. The wall is really impressive even if it is obvious that the bits we were on have recently been rebuilt. The wall just goes straight up & down the hillsides and is incredibly steep at times. Photo opportunities were limited by the ubiquitous Chinese hordes and the t-shirt / postcard / water sellers that had stalls every hundred yards along the wall. We went right to the end of the open section of wall at the steepest side so we managed to escape the crowds.

On the way back we were taken to a factory, which I boycotted, and once back at the hotel we dropped off our gear and headed to McDonalds. I then got a bit of food in for the forthcoming journey & called it a day.