On our last day in Beijing, we take a tour to visit the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square

Our guide has warned us about the arduous climb to the top of the Great Wall in this part of Beijing. We are ready to go!

Even half way through, the view is breathtakingly beautiful. The hard climb and steep steps remind us of the sacrifice of so many people who lost their lives building this wall...

The wall extends as far as the eyes can see, across mounts and valleys...

We take a short break and continue our ascent...

Guido reaches the top first... By the time I get up there, I have to catch my breath... Not many people could make it up to the top, but the effort is worthwhile...

Majestic view from all around...

We now climb a narrow passage way to the very top of the tower

We make it up there and encounter a group of Swedish olympic team

I climbed the Great Wall about 20 years ago, but at a different part, the top was not as high, but the slope was steeper with portions without steps...

Descending is a much easier task although harder for the knees... I count nearly 1500 steps down...

After the Great Wall climb, we take a rest over lunch...

In the afternoon, we visit the Forbidden City

I was lucky 20 years ago when I visited the Forbidden City, there were not many people, and I strolled around in tranquility listening to an audio guide presented by Peter Ustinov, and kept fond memories of the tour. However this time, the place was over crowded making it hard to enjoy the experience...

The enormously grand scale of the Forbidden City never fails to impress...

We visit the Emperor's residence, the Empress' residence, the Concubine lodings, the Court, and the Ceromonial Palace...

All our tours in China have been private. This time our traveling companions are a couple from Canada, the lady is originally from Taiwan but also a member of the Canadian olympic fencing team...

This is a lioness... you can tell because she has a cub under her paw... It was believed that these creatures had milk flowing out of their paws...

A convoy of beetle cars drive through the Forbidden City...

As we keave the crowded Forbidden City we encounter even more people in Tienanmen Square... We have never seen that many people in one place before...

Tienanmen Square is festively decorated with Olympic floral themes... 

At the end of the day, we are relieved to get away from the crowd... We go to a famous Chinese herbal medicine institute and enjoy a foot flexology massage...