Intrepid travellers

After a couple of days pottering arund Beijing we switched to another hotel where we joined our Intrepid group, a great bunch of people who we'll be travelling with for the next month through Tibet to Nepal.

We were priviliged enough to visit the Great Wall for a second time, but to a different section. This area, Mutinayu, is more restored than the length we trekked last time, but equally as incredible. The climb up there was pretty exhausting, and we walked along it for a couple of hours before descending to the car park on a toboggan! This was the closest thing to a luge we'll ever ride - a little plastic seat sliding down a steel shute, a bit like a open flume. It was brilliant!







That evening we saw a kung fu show and were blown away! Kids of about five jumping onto their heads, a man balancing a bamboo tower on his head with a boy on top and plenty of impressively timed fighting acts.

Another sightseeing day was spent at the Forbidden City, an extravagant walled city built by one of China's many ambitious emperors for himself and his concubines. The place is immense and there is just too much to see in one morning. We were helped out on that front by the fact that many buildings were closed to the public dure to renovation in preparation for the influx of tourists expected during the Olympic games in 2008. It seems most of the city is preparing for this mammoth event - there is construction work everywhere and several places are currently closed to tourists.










Next stop: Xi'an, one of China's ancient capitals. We arrived on the overnight train yesterday morning and headed out to see the Terracotta Warriors. The first emperor of China (the same guy that built the Great Wall) ordered for over 4,000 of these warriors to guard him in the afterlife. In 1974 a farmer discovered the site while digging for a well, and after extensive excavation several pits were unearthed, each housing armies of terracotta statues. The warriors are all life size and each one is unique, with different expressions and features. Quite horrifyingly hundreds of skeletons were found alongside the troops - he had all the workers killed on completion as he wanted this to remain secret to avoid looters!

On a final note, we stayed up until the early hours of this morning with our fellow travellers to watch the appalling match between England and Trinidad & Tobago. Who knows how we managed such a victory! We'll keep up the support here in China but it's not quite the same as the atmosphere in England - I've heard the whole country has gone football loopy!