Great Wall and Ming Tombs. Monday 3rd Sept

Traffic in Beijing seems to mix it with pedestrians with a surprising lack of blood on the streets. The local drivers seem to believe that pedestrian crossings are for decoration and traffic signals are a suggestion.

Nonetheless, everything seems to work and the key to this is the fact that if there is a collision between a car and a pedestrian, the driver has to pay regardless of whom is at fault.

Today, Monday 3rd, we travelled 120km to The Great Wall and clambered all over it like a bunch of tourists. The experience, including a 1000M high cable car ride up to the wall on a relatively clear day was unforgettable and we wished you were all here..

The Great Wall was commenced by the Qin (pronounced Chin) Dynasty and topped up by those who followed during the next 400 years or so. The wall we see today is the handy work of the Ming Emperors (or their slaves) being piled up on the remains of the original. Millions of people must have laboured away on that wall over hundreds of years and indeed, when anyone died on the job, their body became part of the wall.

After lunch we visited the Ming Tombs before returning to the hotel to collapse with exhaustion... excited and happy! During the day we also managed to squeeze in a visit to a jade factory and another to a cloisonne factory and our luggage is already bulging. Cloisonne is produced by making the item, be it a vase or other container or decoration, out of copper. This is hand-decorated and fired in an oven several times before the exposed copper outline of the decoration is electroplated with gold.

The girls are missing their husbands already, but are making up for it with shopping therapy.