Who would Toboggan-believe it!

Day four on the wall and what a day!

This morning we drove to Xizhazi Village, where we hiked for 90 minutes up a forested mountain trail to the Great Wall at Jiankou. The trail was initially flat, steepening as we reached Zhengbeilou Tower.

On arrival at the tower we had to climb up man-made ladders - a slightly hairy experience but once we got to the top we had sweeping views of mountains, valleys and small villages nestling against the Great Wall as it wound its way from east to west. This was the highest point of the wall on our 5 days trekking - around 1,000m above sea level!

The Great Wall here was largely overgrown and it felt more like trekking through a garden than on the Great Wall. It was here the sun decided to emerge from the clouds and we were treated to a warm sunny 23°C!

After stopping in the shade for a yummy Subway sandwich lunch we had brought with us, we continued on towards Mutianyu - I was only slightly alarmed to find a sign reading "Danger - no visitors" in respect of the path we had just taken!

From here, we trek a restored section of the wall to the cable car station where we stopped for a brief toilet break. The steps along this section were pretty steep in places with the biggest being 400 steps with no break!

When we got to the cable car we had the choice to take the cable car down or continue for another 45 minutes to take the toboggan to the starting point! Despite my aching knees, the big kid in me was jumping with joy at the thought of a toboggan so I decided to keep going and in the words of Kristy I was "like a powerhouse" going up the steps!

Once we got to the end we relaxed with a nice cold beer / ice cream! Such heaven!!! Although we figured the 5 and a half hours we trekked today more than made up for it!!

After catching the shuttle back to the bus we headed back to our hotel in Huairou where we had some free time before dinner. Elaine, Kristy, Lou and I decided to head out for a little meander to check out the local shops. Not much to see but Lou and I grabbed a cheek can of Yanjing Beer on our way back to the hotel for 3 yuan - about $0.75 NZ.

Dinner tonight was just as wonderful as the other nights, this time dining at Dayali Roast Duck restaurant, also know as Big Pear!