A GREAT day at the GREAT WALL

Dear Diary,
Our last 10 days in Beijing has been action packed. Our first week was spent rotating around local hostels and completing various sight-seeing expeditions. After a couple of days relaxing in a place that was handy to the train station we moved into the city further and explored the Chinese culture - staying in the Hutongs (alley streets).

Our first room was inside an old army weapons base that had been converted into a loft type hostel. There were a couple of things that could have helped this place, e.g. a locking door, increasing the distance of our toilet from our bed, and a sign for our neighbour advising that watching loud movies and having numerous Chinese mobile conversations at 3am is perhaps not the best way to make new friends. We however had a good laugh for a few days using it as a base. From here we saw Tianemin square, the Temple of Heaven, the 2008 Olympic park, and the Forbidden City - all incredible in there own right. If we had to pick one the Forbidden City was a standout, we spent a full day enjoying the different temples, alleys and courtyards.
Our second place was another little hutong with a much smaller 'guest house' feel and plenty of jazz type cafes run by foriegner's nearby. The street even had a single speed bike shop!! We booked a few nights here - we missed the locals mans name who ran it so he became known as 'old mate'! One day we hired classic Beijing bikes from the bike store and covered half of inner Beijing. Im not too sure if anyone is fimiliar with riding a bike in China but im sure your imagination can help you out... If you picture how we have explained the amount of people around and how walking can be hard without crashing into each other, then add wheels and double the speed you've got it! Very cool day.

With the help Aunty Paula we managed to track down some Duffy family friends and our last (and final) four nights in China have been spent staying with the Bowyer's out near the airport. Our time there playing with the triplets, swimming, running, and enjoying the BBQ was so good!! With the help of some insider knowledge (Thanks Kathryn) we took a private driver (who we might add turned out to be an english speaking, Pegueo driving opera singer) to the wall which was great (could'nt help the pun). Charlie dropped us at one section and we were lucky enough to walk 10km to another area where he picked us up. Our walk was on both restored and un-restored sections and at times there was no one else in sight so it really incredible.

We have just checked in with our interpid tour group leader Dennis, who seems awesome. We meet the rest of the group at 6pm and then tomorrow we board the train for Mongolia and then on to Russia before making it to the rest of Europe in about 2 and half weeks - should be a blast.

Thanks for all the awesome notes from home, we look foward to updating you again soon.

Love
McDuff
Tristan and Michele