A totally exhausted Sherry here. Yesterday, the climb up a short length of the Great Wall has decimated out-of-shape me. We took the bus to Badaling (the best preserved part of the Great Wall and the first part that was opened up for tourists). I managed to overcome my fear of heights and made it to the first sentry tower; I'm always completely in awe of what people back then were capable of doing. Firstly, they built the Great Wall by hand... and when someone died, they just tossed them right into the wall. Secondly, once built (steps at different heights and widths), soldiers ran up and down walls. Seriously, after that first section, which took half an hour of upward stair climbing, I think my heart was about to explode out of my chest. I sat there and kept greeting out of breath tourists while 70 year old healthy people whipped by us. Bill kept going for a couple more sections before he came back down to pick me up.


Then our guide took us to a famous health centre, focused on Chinese medicine. They had Chinese doctors do free 'ba mai' to check your health. Bill was told that his liver wasn't good - no more alcohol for him! The Chinese doctor told me that my cholesterol was high... so no more red meat and seafood for me! We didn't end up buying any Chinese medicine, but we both decided to partake in the foot massage. I was quite surprised that Bill agreed to do it and then... he enjoyed it! At the end of the evening, there was a traditional Chinese variety show with girls twirling plates, boys jumping through hoops and a 'change face' performance. While much of the show was incredible, there were quite a few errors (which I found surprising). Our guide later told us that it was a new stage that the performers were getting used to and they had only just started up the shows again after a winter hiatus. Oh well.

And it's food, food and more food... they just keep feeding us. Dumplings one day, Peiking Roast Duck another... tonight it was Szechuan food in an restaurant with the old Chinese style interior.

Bill- So much Chinese food. I really should be speaking the language by now, I've shoved so much of the food into my face. It's all been really good, I wasn't expecting the restaurants to be such good quality. But the tour has been taking us to 4 star restaurants that have been pretty spectacular in both food and atmosphere.

The Great Wall is just that. It's unfortunate that the section we went to is such an arduous climb right at the start, it goes almost straight up right at the get go. It's also highly renovated: I'd like to try next time to get to a lesser known section and see some more authentic and scenic parts of it. Another lesson for next time: better physical preparation next time. Like running up and down the CN Tower stairwell a few times. I managed to make it to the third sentry, but the climb to the fourth was too long. There was even a lady who stopped and grabbed the railing and refused to climb down, even under the cajoling of passers by.

Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing. It's a half day; the morning will be a visit to a Buddhist temple, and lunch will be a Yunnan show. Then it's a flight back to Taipei and a day of rest before the madness of Hong Kong.