Wan Li Chang Cheng

A 06:00 start to go to the Great Wall, Badaling Section (the most touristy section of them all). The reason I had to get up so early is because everyone says that the earlier you go to the wall, the better. Otherwise you'll just end up getting caught in the flood of tourists. The coach we got left at 08:00 and was a one and a half hour ride to the wall too.

Climbing to the actual start of the Great Wall was a bit of a challenge - the stairs up were really steep and deep, and there was a mini bear park which you had to go through first too. Actually, we cheated a bit by taking the sliding cars up, but still, even getting to there was pretty tough too.

So we walked along the wall for a good two hours before reaching the highest point of the Badaling section. On the way, there were loads of Chinese tourists asking to take pictures of us - well, mainly Beth, most likely because she's white and ginger (and I'm saying that in the least racist way possible).

After reaching the top, Beth and I carried on walking the rest of the wall but Yasmin for some reason turned back the way we came without us knowing - we thought she had gone ahead of us since we were taking so long at the top but obviously not. In the end, we ended up having to sit around waiting for her for an hour because she got lost.. :/

Whilst making our way round and down the wall, back to where started, the path got more and more difficult - there were loads of steps and slopes which were so steep, they were practically vertical. On the slopes going downwards too, I must've slipped at least 3 or 4 times, and almost fell into an old man who was trying to walk down the slope himself because not only was it steep, but the path was slippery and so there was hardly any friction between my shoes and the ground.