Climbing the Great Wall ...

We took a day trip to a section of wall about 3 hours drive North of Beijing to escape the worst of the crowds, allowing the opportunity for me to climb the 10km section of wall between Jinshanling and Simitai.

The day brought some light drizzle and mist, which, combined with the increased elavation it made for a thankfully cooler (but still 29 degrees) day for the climb. The weather definitely didn't do anything for the photo's, but it certainly made the experience more atmospheric.

We may have escaped most of the tourists, but this had a downside as we subjected to the most organised and persistent display of hawking (books, t-shirts, postcards) that I've experienced anywhere. The ratio of hawkers was about 1:1, which necessitated the golden bullet approach - they each targeted a single person constantly for about 2-3km (1 hour) up and down steep sections of the wall.

Despite the cooler weather it was so humid I must still have lost of couple of litres of fluid on the climb - still there was nothing too technically difficult, but the gradient was fairly relentless, and it required use of hands in quite a few places where the wall had partially collapsed.

Not only is the wall a great feat of engineering, but it's in some of the most rugged terrain that just getting to it would surely have put most potential invaders off.

Ironically the history books say it was so easy to bribe the guards stationed there, that the walls only real success was as a transport route. I for one wouldn't have managed nearly so well had I been portering 50 kilo's of rice ...

The hawkers aside, this was a really great way to see the wall - and an absolute breeze compared to our recent experience on Mt. Fuji ... You can see all the photos from the day here.

Well, it's just not cricket ...

In fact it's Grasshopper. Or rather 3 of them.

It all started with a superb meal in one of Beijing's Peking Duck restaurants. Then somehow, after a few late afternoon beers, we found ourselves at the famous night market daring each other to eat the more exotic skewers. After some negotiation we decided that my challenge was scorpions, and Mel would eat grasshoppers.

The technique is quite simple. Close your eyes. Imagine a nice salty beer snack. Pop the critter in your mouth whole. Then chew. Oh, and make sure you don't get a leg or tail stuck up your nose in the process. Actually they were suprisingly inoffensive.

We tried lots of new food during our week in Beijing - from the pretty tame water lilies, to the rather more exotic chicken heart skewers and duck tongue soup (finished with whole duck tongues).

Even after surviving these experiences, the sight of a small girl walking down the street eating a deep fried starfish 10 inches in diameter still managed to turn the stomach a little - and we definitely draw the line at dog ...

I just had to take a photo of this ...

I found this whilst cycling past a bar in Beijing one morning - a clear & direct advertising message if ever I saw one !

Have a good weekend - whatever you're drinking.

Taking the heat in the Hutong ...

Welcome to the China - where (unlike the rest of Asia) a massage really does appear to be a massage - yet a good proportion of barber shops seem to be engaging openly in prostitution.

Contemplating a whole new meaning to the expression "cut & blow", but with little personal risk of inadvertedly being drawn into the sex trade, I set off in the 40 degree heat to inspect our new locale for our week in Beijing, the historic Banchang Hutong.

Hutongs are areas of low rise traditional housing, originally established during times of Mongol rule. Each Hutong, or street, is lined with entrances to a maze of alleyways and courtyards containing individual residences. Even today many of these houses have no running water or sanitation, relying instead on a network of public toilet/shower blocks found every 100 metres or so.

In the area around our hotel (thankfully with running water) I found a heady mix of old and new Beijing - locals playing cards and board games in the street, hole in the wall skewer BBQ's - mixed in with a new wave of cool bars and eateries catering to the afterwork crowd and tourists in equal measure.

While they enjoy their rightful place in China's line-up of tourist attractions - the Hutongs are in rapid decline, making way for the faceless tower blocks which accompany Beijing's rush to modernise - before the city becomes the focus of the worlds attention during next years Olympic Games.

With it's rickshaw tours of historic buildings and new ecomony of cool bars and restaurants, perhaps Banchang will stand a better chance of survival than most. One thing's for sure, even for those that escape the bulldozer - things are changing fast.

We found the best way of getting around Beijing was to escape the traffic jams by doing as the locals do. Taking to 2 wheels we explored the city by bike, hitting some of the city's must see sights like the Forbidden City and Tianammen Square. You can catch all the photos by clicking here.

Most remarkable of all was some of the food - but I think I'll leave that for another post ...

Ryokan rules ...

For the Zen temple capital of Japan, Kyoto looked suprisingly like any other high-rise city upon arrival at it's super-modern train station.

It was only as our taxi ferried us into a nearby district of traditional 2/3 storey houses that we started to appreciate Kyoto's unique charms.

We'd chosen a Ryokan (traditional guesthouse) for this part of our stay in Japan - and they have some unusual differences to western hotels, most notably;

Room size is chosen based a quantity of tatami mats. Like the base of the futon beds you can buy in the UK, these are a standard size and define the size of the raised floor of your room.

• You always take your shoes off at the door, where you call out to the owner who swaps them for a charming pair of Ryokan slippers. I never found a pair that fitted my western size 10's.


• Slippers are just for getting from reception to your room. You're not allowed to wear them past the room entrance, just bare or stocking feet on the mats.


• When you go to the toilets (usually shared) you swap to Bathroom slippers in order not to cross contaminate different floor areas. Have I mentioned the Japanese are sticklers for order yet?


• Probably the biggest difference though is that there's no bed in your room. Come bedtime, you move the table & get a mattress, sheets and quilt from a cupboard to make your own bed on the floor.


• It's good manners to have at least 1 meal a day in your Ryokan. Evening meal in your room, breakfasts in a big tatami mat room. You always sit on the floor to eat (on top of your legs), and every meal consists almost solely of fish and soy delicacies.


• Bathing is in large communal rooms (sex separated) as consists of a shower, followed by a few minutes reclining in the sento - what we'd know of as a hot tub. Absolute bliss after a day pounding the pavements in 30 degree heat.


• Apparently there's loads more to a Ryokan stay if you're Japanese - this is just the minimum to get by as a Westerner without causing offence!

The Ryokan's we stayed in were all scrupulously clean, welcoming & just as stylish as everything else over here. They are also fantastic value and a great way to appreciate Japanese culture - a highly recommended part of any stay.

Our second suprise on arriving in Kyoto was unexpectedly running into Ed in our guesthouse foyer as we checked in. Although we were slightly disabled from the previous evenings "bear baiting" we still managed to join him in a local Karaoke bar, where the owner fairly insisted we must sample his Japanese whisky and smoked Octopus well into the night as we celebrated our return from Mount Fuji ...

We awoke the next morning to discover our legs in consdierably worse state, in fact hardly working at all. No stranger to the effects of half marathons, 3 peaks challenges etc - I was quite unprepared for just what 1.5km of continuous descent can do to your legs ... 400 yards to the local laundrette and internet cafe ws as far as we made it that day. We looked like bloody idiots hobbling around.

Thankfully in Japan even the humble laundrette can throw up a few suprises ... why bother putting detergent in the machine? Hell it's supposed to be automatic, it'll take care of that itself. And it won't keep you waiting around either - just 30 minutes for a 7kg load, was suprisingly quick. And it went by the name of Jabu Jabu Land.

As with most other things, the Japanese just seem to find novel but straightforward ways of doing it better. Like taxi doors that open at the flick of a switch from the driver. And don't get me started on the toilets again.

With just a week in Kyoto and tens of UNESCO World Heritage listed sights to see, we picked our sightseeing carefully to avoid getting templed-out. The notable highlights were the magnificent Golden Pavillion (above), Toji Temples 5-storey pagoda & the Philosophers Walk - perfect for a spot of contemplation.

We finished our week in Kyoto with a visit to our local Yakitori bar - these local eateries are easily spotted by the red lanterns hanging outside, and serve up BBQ skewers of everything from chicken to pig intestine. This one also served up the somewhat ironically named "light alcohol" - a potent homemade alco-pop, and ice-cold bottles of my favourite Yebisu.

We may have barely scratched the surface of Kyoto's temple circuit - but that even acheived our very own state of Zen ... and all for less than 2 quid a pint ...

I was a bit more organised on the Kyoto photos, so they should all be available to view now. In the event this isn't a nice snap of a golden looking pavillion - can someone email me - cheers. Mel's finally finished our official trip map too - you can get at it here, or as a link on the sidebar.