wall

been on the great wall... some parts in remarkably good condition, whilst only metres away other parts were all broken. the walk was about 10km long -- our driver dumped us in some village and said "walk that way until you reach the wall, then turn right and walk 10km along the wall until you reach a suspension bridge, then turn right again and I'll meet you at the restaurant." simple instructions for something that took us 5h. on the way plenty of people to follow us telling us how they were pooor farmers from mongolia and then suddenly produce bags filled with books, tshirts, ice cold water (it seems to start the day as a block of ice and turn into water as the day progresses), beer, coke, postcards, allsorts. I avoided paying anything; one of the others in the group took the oppoiste approach and hired two of them to carry his bags the whole way (very colonial).