Day 4, Beijing (hey, that IS a pretty great wall...)

Last day on the Beijing running tour. No trip to Beijing is completed without two experiences (per Wong Lei, our tour guide)--Peking Duck ("check"), and the Great Wall. Yep, it's big. And steep. But very, very cool. (For the record, it is Kristen who is channeling Richard Nixon).



This is the "before" picture (there is no "after" picture because it wasn't pretty...)

The walk up to the first tower in this section of the wall (which is the best maintained but also the most heavily travelled/touristed) is the steepest and dodgiest part of the walk. It sort of thins the herd--only the intrepid (i.e., the Chinese grandmas and babies, pregnant Brazilians, anyone Swiss, and the odd Aussie in full hiking gear) push on to the higher towers and discover an easier walk with fewer people. Who knew?



Those intrepid enough (you know, the grandmas) are rewarded with incredible views of the mountains, valleys and the structures below. As you'll notice, you can see blue sky out here.



There are a few narrow, winding sections, very like a very steep spiral staircase, that are vertigo-producing.





We also stopped at the Ming Tombs before raising the white flag and saying "I surrender." The setting is quite beautiful, and we actually heard wind in the trees and birds singing. A very welcome change.



Tomorrow we leave Beijing and fly to Guangzhou. Tonight we are turning our attention to packing up and getting ready for the real reason we came on this trip--to meet our daughter. It's an odd feeling. We have no idea what we are in for, but we are looking forward to it.

We've so enjoyed the comments and emails from all of you. Please keep in touch.

Until tomorrow, good night from Beijing!