warning: self-indulgent posting ahead...

Here is a photo of me at the top of the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutianyu. I had to take the picture myself, because I was the only one on our trip who made it all the way to the top! I had a great time doing the hike and felt wonderful afterward. Now I am in training for climbing a live volcano in Guatemala in a few weeks!

I am tired tonight so heading off to bed soon. We leave Beijing tomorrow, but for me this has been one of the best days of the trip. In addition to the Wall, we went to Olympic Green, the site of many of the venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics#Venues. The weather, which has been quite cool and very windy, cooperated, and you can see we had a lovely blue sky with sun and no wind. Our guide, Andy, has been unbelievably good and the trip leader and her husband and I went for dinner with him tonight. I want to say more about him in the blog, but will do so at another time. I also will go back and write about Hong Kong and the rest of our stay in Beijing later -- there is much to say.

News from John: he slept through a life boat drill last night as the ship left for Shanghai, and the 150 people that were left on the ship (most came to Beijing) had a nice dinner with the captain. I think he is probably lucky to have been able to participate in the dinner after missing the drill!