Having a relaxing train trip is one thing. Trying to get off the train at a busy station with too much luggage is quite another! Again, quite a hike to street level where we met Mr Liu who was sponsoring us for train travel and accommodation. There was quite a discussion about how to get us to the hotel as we stood in the heat fending off beggars. Finally, we were loaded up and on the road. The first hotel we were taken to turned out to be the wrong one. Shame...it looked quite nice. The 2nd hotel was ours - City Hotel Beijing. Shame...for the opposite reason. Our room was an apartment. The hallway looked like we were on an abandoned floor and our apartment wasn't much better. The floor looked like it hadn't been vacuumed for about 2 years. Not happy. We went down to reception and asked to see another room. The showed us exactly the same thing on a different floor. Not happy. 3rd time lucky, we asked to see a standard room, not an apartment, and this was fine. 2 3/4 size single beds that are hard as a rock, but otherwise just fine.
All settled in we then headed to the Great Wall. It's quite a way out of Beijing. Badaling is quite a tourist trap. I believe there are better places to go to, but this was all we could arrange. It's hard to walk 2 paces without something being sold to you, and they are very persistent. The wall is vast, as I knew it would be, but I wasn't expecting the steepness. It was very hot and I found it difficult to walk far as I was still not feeling great. John and I followed signs to the cable car. The first sign said 1100metres. That sounded ok. The 2nd sign said 3000metres. Hmmmm....I think the taxi drivers are in charge of putting up the signs. We had one guy follow us for almost the entire time we were walking! He just didn't get that we just wanted to enjoy our walk!
Back at the hotel we just crashed for the night.
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