Early morning we got up at 7 am sharp and left at 8 am to visit The Great Wall before the crowd got there.
The trip took one hour and when we arrived at the parking lot we saw that only few people and tour groups were there.
First we had to buy our tickets and then we had to overcome all the merchants before we could take the cable car up to the wall. Once we reached the top I was shown were I would be heading.
We started on our epic journey climbing up and pacing down the wall.
About half an hour into the trip we saw a cannon with a lizard on it. I tried to catch it (the lizard, that is) but it was too quick for me to catch.
As we neared the end of the walk for us we approached a guard tower that had stairs to the open top deck so we were able to go up. The view from the guard tower was spectacular. You could see The Great Wall go on for miles.
Once we finished our walk we took a toboggan chute down the mountain. The sledge was very quick and showed you some of the best views of the area.
Back on the ground we got some ice cream, bought me a sweater “I climbed The Great Wall” and left for lunch.
We made our way from The Great Wall to the Summer Palace. That trip took us one more hour. On the way Dad told me what the Summer Palace was famous for.
First for its magnificent Marble Boat. Secondly, it's known for having the longest decorated corridor in the world (see the mouse-over picture at the top). It also has all its temples and shrines.
Whilst we were walking in the blazing heat I spotted many curious objects. The palace was for many a relaxing sort of spot. But I guess you could expect that since the summer palace was for the Emperor, his wife and his concubines.
We also hired a boat that I could steer so we could see some things that you couldn’t see on the land.
Because it was the clearest day ever we could see the radio tower way into Beijing, which for all we knew it might just be our next stop. So what do ya know? We ended up at the radio tower!
We went into the lift and started on our 70-second ride 238 meters up and reached the top deck of the outdoor observatory deck. On the way up, we were told that the whole tower moves with the wind -and they were right!
I could see everything all around the city of Beijing since it was so crystal clear.
Afterwards we went down one floor to stop at the toilets. Then we went down one more floor into the revolving restaurant. I did not eat there but we did decide to come back and eat there another day. We headed home and barbecued instead.