Saturday 27th October 2018

We started the day with breakfast at our hotel before heading out at 830am for the day.

Our first stop was around an hour drive from our hotel - the Jade Market.  We were introduced to our host who told us a little bit about how the Jade is made into the sculptures that we could see around us.  We spent a little time watching some employees sculpting the Jade, it looked really difficult, the workers are certainly skilled! We then spent some time in their shop - it was all very expensive but we managed to make a few purchases.

It was then time to head to the main attraction - The Great Wall. It was about a further 30 minutes by coach. We parked up and headed to the entrance. Peter told us some facts and figures while we were on our way. Looking up at the vast crawling walls it was difficult to believe that 6000km of this was built 500BC. We spent around 2 hours walking the south side of the Great Wall, some even managed the North Side as well (racing an old Chinese man back down). Parts are pathways and others parts stairways, the stairways are uneven and in parts were difficult to climb. The views were absolutely breathtaking - the boys have lots of photographs that will remind them of today. How amazing to have walked one of the seven wonders of the world at the age of 14/15. 

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a local restaurant for a late lunch, Tommy dared eat a chilli which almost blew his head off! We’ve had some great conversations around these spinning tables over the last week.

From here we headed back to the hotel - a journey which should take 1 hour on a Saturday took us over 2. We did manage to see lots of local areas on the way from the coach - the scooters still amaze us, no helmets out on the open road... crazy!

At 630pm (20 minutes after we got back) we all met to go Ice Skating... it’s in the Mall attached to our hotel so it would have been rude not to. We were very proud that each and every one of them tried it with quite a few lasting the whole 90 minutes. Darren wins the award for the most animated skater, Matthew N for perseverance and Zac for unexpected skill. We then headed to Haagen Dazs for ice cream heaven!

Some headed back to rooms and others to play ping pong and table football. It’s our last day tomorrow (sad face). We don’t want this to end.  

Just to give you the heads up parents.... they already know what takeaways they want on Monday night - Pizza is featuring high up on the menu😜.

‘Amazing to think that I may have just experienced and seen something so incredible that I may never see again. This place is unreal like nothing I have ever seen before.’ Harvey C

‘Absolutely loving Beijing and had a great experience climbing the greatest wall of them all, sad to be leaving tomorrow, but it’s an experience I’ll never forget.’ Harry F