This evening a group of us went to the theatre to watch The Legend of Kungfu show. I have seen similar shows but nonetheless very impressive. The actors stood on stage at the end if you wanted to have a photo taken with them. I didn't take up their offer. Coming back to the hotel we went via Forbidden City to see it lit up. Looks a bit tacky to be honest. Training day tomorrow at one of the universities. We are actually staying in Beijing till Sunday morning as...

After lunch we visited the Jade Factory. We saw a couple of craftsmen carving the jade and were given a talk about different types of jade and how to tell a fake from the real thing. Very interesting. Needless to say I bought a couple of small pieces for my Chinese cabinet.

We visited the Great Wall this morning We were given free time to climb as high as we wanted. Rhonda, Gail and myself made it to tower number 10. I can't believe how steep we climbed but it was well worth it. I also did some Tai Chi on the wall for which I have video and photos. When we were up the top of the wall it was great not to hear the traffic noise and the greenery was stunning. Unfortunately it was quite smoggy but it did add to the atmosphere.

Following the Tai Chi session we continued through the park till we got to the Temple. There were various buildings and Lily our tour guide filled us in on plenty of history about the rituals that went on there during the days of the emperors. There were also some amazing trees. The oldest one reputed to be 600 years old was protected by a fence but we were instructed to hold our hands out towards it. Wow, the Qi from it was incredible. After this visit we went...

Started today with Tai Chi in the park at Temple of Heaven. Photo shows first people we saw doing Tai Chi. We set up next to them and Tary took us through 24 step and then taught us the moves for Six Healing Sounds Qigong. It was very amusing seeing the Chinese people stopping to watch us and to take pictures of us! Thoroughly enjoyed the session. There were a variety of groups doing Tai Chi and there are even coat stands situated around the edges for bags etc ...