The Great Wall of China, Jinshanling, China

The next part of our trip I had been looking forward to for a VERY long time! One of the Ancient Wonders of the World, there are no words that can describe The Great Wall of China. It is truly and absolutely AMAAZZZING! And we had a fantastic experience. When friends Tracy and Paul and family left us to head back to Beijing, Martin and I had The Wall to ourselves. It was very humbling - just us and The Wall. We were going to spend the night right on the wall itself. Our guide, Sun Hai Long, was a funny, kind and gracious host with a really sweet wife and family who we took to immediately. After spending sunset on the wall, we had a feast of food back at his home. We then trooped up to the Wall with a couple of other travellers and organised our sleeping quarters on a couple of the watchtowers. Martin and I decided to sleep outside (you can see our watchtower hotel behind me in the picture). I think Sun Hai thought we were mad (he may have a point!) as it was rather cold! Before Sun Hai left us we watched the stars come up, and later could see the Milky Way. Then when we thought it couldn't get any better, the moon rose and changed the whole picture - making the Wall nearest to us glow, and in the distance, it became a wonderful silhouette. When we finally tucked into our sleeping bags (three each) it was around 1 am. We awoke once before the sun rose and the air temperauture was surprisingly warm and we stood in awe at the view around us. We had to remind ourselves that we were, indeed, on the The Great Wall of China. It was amazing! * Mush