Beijing & The Great Wall

Back into Hong Kong and more of the shopping and great food. We became locals in a very short period of time. We jumped a bus and train to Lanteau Island and visited the giant Buddha. A bit like a religious Disneyland but worth the visit. Getting around the city is a breeze with a fantastic public transport system and English being the second language. Compare that to Beijing where very few people speak English and very few signs are in English. Can make it difficult getting around, even by taxi. Putting the small frustrations aside we had one of the most amazing days so far on the holiday. We took a tour to a section of the wall called Mutiyanyu. To say its a magical place seems not enough. They built this wall over the most difficult terrain imaginable and you can only imagine the hardships they must have faced. It's a great place to go because there are no crowds. We jumped on a cable car to the top of the wall and at times it felt as if we had the place to ourselves. The weather was perfect. It was made a bit more special due to the snow aswell. Matt had never seen snow before and the temptation to make massive snow balls and launch them proved too great. We all had to pinch ourselves, having a snowball fight on the great wall of China seemed so far removed from anything we had ever experienced before. One of the surprises is you can go on a Toboggan back down to where the bus drops you off. I thought I was getting cheered on by the guards to go faster and lean into the corners, turns out it was the opposite. Apparently your not allowed to ride it like an olympian. Andiamo