Saturday afternoon/ evening of the 22nd was the day we all realised we should have done at least some form of training in the hiking department months in advance, as we visited one of the Seven Wonders of the World – The Great Wall of China.

We arrived at the Great Wall at roughly 10-ish and had an hour and forty minutes to climb and explore. Everyone was extremely buzzed to see how far they could get – some more than others. Despite the slightly overcast cooler day – that many of us moaned at first, it was actually a blessing in disguise as we soon realised the sheer steepness of the very varied, uneven steps. It was also very busy with tourists such as ourselves, other large tour groups and families which made it harder to get up and down. The really embarrassing thing was many young children were beating us and there was even elder people with walking sticks and loads on their backs (workers).

Congratulations to Callum who was 1st to climb to the highest point out of our hub and 2nd overall. The views were out of this world and everyone definitely felt a sense of accomplishment afterwards. Going up was certainly tough but going down was also very challenging, especially when the railing was at the height of our knees and our thighs were burning. We had some time to buy souvenirs at the gift shops at the bottom before leaving.  Some of our legs were shaking as our muscles had actually been worked! It was one of the most enjoyable and memorable activities of the trip and one we will be talking about for years.

We then went for lunch nearby before going to visit the Summer Palace.  We took a nice walk through the gardens and finished up on a short boat ride on the man-made lake, to exit.

Our final activity of the day was our visit to Beijing Foreign Studies University, where we got to watch a short play (in Mandarin) put on by some local primary students before splitting up into our hub groups with the students for some games. Even though we were unable to understand the dialogue their acting skills and confidence made up for it and it translated amazingly.  It was very well rehearsed.

Sunday 23rd we did a guided tour of Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City with our tour guide, Judy. It was good to see both attractions in real life as many of us have only seen pictures. Pictures don’t capture the grandness of the whole city nor the very fine details like art. The tour took 2 hours and we finished up in a region full of beautiful trees, plants, rock structures and a very wide moat – one of the imperial gardens.

Then it was back on the bus to go to lunch and then in the afternoon we went to the Hutongs, which is an old part of Beijing made up of narrow streets.  We took a 20 minute rickshaw tour which was very relaxing and the best way to travel and see the neighbourhood.

Then we went to visit a family who are friends of Jackie Chan. He told us their house has been passed down through 6 generations and that 1m square was roughly worth ¥400,000 (over £50,000). We went outside to see a world famous cricket fighter who explained to us the art of cricket fighting. He showed us their houses and the fine tools used to keep it clean as well as the coffin that he prepares for each of his beloved crickets.  A cricket’s life span is  around 100 days and really good crickets can be worth $10,000!  He also showed us the ‘cheerleaders’ on the side of the fight i.e. Grasshoppers!

Lucy Paterson