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Hi everyone
my turn to write the blog (leo). Just after the last message we went to Houhai lake for a romantic candle-lit dinner together at sunset (don't worry keri) and watched chinese people crash into each other in their boats. We went back to the hostel and had some tsing tao again with edd.
The next morning we eventually made it to the summer palace. It was a 1.5 hr hike in 35 degrees but we got to see a lot of beijing outside the centre and touristy areas. The summer palace decor is a lot like the forbidden city but there were some really good views over the lake from the top of the palace grounds. It was pretty full of tourists but more chinese than europeans.
We dumped our bags at edds so we could set off early to the great wall the next day. It was quite hard to organise as edd may have booked somewhere between 0 and 5 taxi drivers to take us but we got up early and only two turned up. It took about 2hrs to get there and i slept all the way, leaving dave to make sure we were being taken to the great wall! We decided to go to Simatai section of the wall as its less touristy and is a lot more original and pristine. It was definately the best thing we have done so far. I didn't realise we would be dropped off at the bottom a half an hour walk from the start of the wall! It look miles away but wasn't too hard to climb up to. We walked across about ten tours and the views were amazing. Some sections were pretty steep and the steps are pretty sketchy, especially for descending. We spent 4hrs on the wall then got a taxi back. Luckily edd was there to meet us with the money to pay the driver otherwise it could have been interesting.
We went out to an all you can eat japanese restaurant 10 min walk from edds apartment which we are spending the last few days in beijing at. We had to take off our shoes and sat with our feet under the table in a private booth wth edds class mates ( we were crashing their end of term party as they all finished exams that day). The food was really good although the only other sushi i have eaten was from tesco so it was always going to taste way better than that. Dave wasn't a fussy eater and ate all sorts of sushi and randomly mash potato and chips which are authentic japanese! Dave and edd headed out to la bamba, the bar near the hostel we were staying at and i went back to edds for a sleep.
Today is a pretty slow day, just sorting out baags, sending emails and having a house party at edds before flying to shanghai and sydney on friday/saturday. I am sending this from an restaurant booth with free internet near edds.
We are having minor technical difficulties with putting photos on so we will see how it goes but hopefully photos are soon to follow.
I hope everythings going well for you all in england and you are finding the blog interesting.
take care
Leo and dave xxxx
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