The Great Wall and the last day in Beijing

This was a thrilling site, living up to our expectations and more. The hotel organised a car and a driver for us on the weekend. Maybe a bit above the odds, but a good choice because he was quite a good driver compared to most of the kamikaze taxi drivers we had experienced and he even had seat belts and air conditioning. We drove a bit further out of town than the tourist buses usually go, to Mutianya, so we could climb the wall at a quieter place.

90 kilometres and over an hour and a half later, we arrived at the stretch of the wall called Mutianya. We rode up the very steep escarpment to the wall via a cable car.

Once at the top, the views were amazing.

The weather was stunning too.

We began to realise that the climb would be much steeper than we thought.

All told it is believed the wall may have been way over 10,000 kilometres long.

There are 26 Ming era watchtowers along this section of the wall.

On our last day we headed back to the city area.

This little girl was helping her mother sell flags.

This is the latest in sun hat styles.

Tian'anmen Square at night.

The Forbidden City.