day 115, beijing

Woke up reasonably early to get some food for brekkie and catch the bus to the great wall! We went to the Mutianyu section, which is a bit of a quieter area of the wall around 75km out of Beijing. The traffic was pretty heavy and we got there in a bout 2 hours. We split up and most of us walked the 1200odd steps up the to wall, then along the wall with fantastic views all around and a fair bit of picture taking. We then walked down the wall to queue up for the toboggan, which although the queue took a hour and I got stuck behind Ali (it’s not often a girl says that she doesn’t weigh enough) it was amazing, the bits that were fast was incredible and it was a fair old distance. After the bus ride home (mostly sleeping) and showered we all met up in fancy dress (smart like, not the other fancy) for a dinner and drinks. We all had a hotpot between 4 of us, where you put the stuff in and cook it in the middle of your table. We had super beef, chicken, mutton, spinach, tofu, some mushroom thing which was lovely and lotus foot, while the table along (of course it was Brians) got the sheep penis, on the menu translated as Sheep’s Pizzle, so had a cock and it wasn’t great, like gristle and didn’t taste of anything. From there we went back to the hotel, sat in a big circle playing a pyramid drinking game with beers and 2 bottles of vodka going round, got smashed and caught the bus to the bar area by the lake, ended up back at the reggae bar and had a fabulous evening. Had a few more drinks and we found out it was Regine’s birthday the next day (technically at 12 midnight) so we got a makeshift card round while she was distracted with dancing. A few people then got up and had a boogie which was great to the live band, and after a fair while we moved off to a louder club with a proper dance floor (as we kept on bashing into the three piece band) and sat outside having a good chat watching the inter game, before getting a cab home and bed! Fucking great day