great wall

Saturday was a fabulous day. We drove up to Chengde, a city around 250 km north east of Beijing, to visit some of the palaces and temples built for the emperors to visit when the Beijing weather got too hot. The day started smoggy but cleared when we got there, and we enjoyed a lovely quiet visit to the Putuozengcheng temple, which is designed to be a mini version of the Potala Palace in Tibet.

The great bonus was a quick stop-off at the Jingshanling section of the Great Wall of China. Popular with walkers but not with tourist groups, we arrived at about 6pm, just before sunset but after the crowds, and enjoyed a walk on the Wall as it should be- peaceful and with no one around! This blip is a rare view of the Great Wall with (almost) no one on it. I love that you can see it snaking across the background and then up the jagged mountains right at the back. Contentment all round!