[eddy]

At 4.45am.........shit yes, 4.30am...... Xue-er's handphone alarm bell went off stirring me out of sleep. She sprang out of bed like a jackrabbit and hustled me out to the toilet to clean up.

'Hurry up! We're going to miss it if we dont rush !' she urged me.

'duuuuhhhh.....Huh?' I replied drowzily still half in dream land as I brushed my teeth and took a quick wake up shower.

Pulled on my pants and a polo t-shirt we walked out of the hotel down the steps past the fountain onto Chan'an Jie and got into a cab.

In 90 seconds flat minutes we arrived at Tiananmen Square at 4.50am. The air was a little cleaner and clearer. We crossed the road and got on to the Square facing the Forbidden City.

We had come to watch the daily flag raising ceremony of the Chinese National Flag!!!!!! I had forgot about it after she talked about it a couple of days back.

I was then expecting 2 of us taking in the early morning serenity and peace in a quiet walk at day break enjoying the tranquility of Tiananmen Square.

I was wrong.

By 5am there was another 30,000 to 40,000 other similarly minded people all crowding against the barricades waiting for the flag raising ceremony!!! Where on earth did all these people come from???? Many men, women and children were in nothing more than their pajamas and night-gowns with little else than slippers on their feet.

Actually quite worth the trouble if you're into peeping thru well-washed see-thru nightgowns! Many of the girls were in their teens and even those ladies in their twenties were scantily clad. Of course those with tour groups beginning their day long tour of the city were much more appropriately dressed.

At 5.20am sharp, the guard of honor marched out of the Forbidden City and crossed the road with the national flag in hand.

During the flag raising you could feel the national zeal and pride that Chinese people have for their country, with almost all standing up straight in full attention and singing the national anthem among themselves. Xue-er had her right arm across her chest as she witnessed for the first time the raising of the Chinese flag. It was a big moment for her.

By 5.30am the ceremony was over and the photo taking and touting started....... bought her half a dozen kites for 10rmb ....... there were kite and flag sellers all over the place.

Cant get back to sleep, we walked to a nearby park to see early morning folks practicing sword-play, tai-chi, folk-dancing and other exercises.

The rest of the day was spent visiting an unrenovated section of the Great Wall at Jinsanlin......the one farthest away from Beijing (about 2.5 hrs by car)

I hear that its even more beautiful and wilder than the one at Badaling. Arriving at Jinsanlin, I looked like the only foreigner and only about 20 other people had arrived before us.

Looking up 1800 to 2000+ feet high on the ridge of a mountiain, I could see the outline of the Great Wall. How the hell they built something like that all along the ridge 600 years ago, I have absolutely no idea.

we paid the entrance and bought open-air cable car tickets for the ride up 3/4 of the way. It was a very long ride and being open-air, was very cooling and refreshing in the mountains.

At the end of the cable car ride, it was another tram ride up to within 150m TO the Wall. That last 150m climb UP was killer and a little dangerous but we made it.

The view from the top was breath-taking. We looked over one side and we could see Hubei province stretching out into the horizon below our feet. Truly magnificent was Jinsanlin's section of the Great Wall that we spent the next 5hrs up there walking through 5 towers stretching almost 2 km in length.

if u guys visit this place, just be a little careful when walking along the wall...... no rails or aids to help you and when you fall off the side.........well, see u'll be falling at least 9m off the wall BEFORE you even hit the slope of the mountain that drops ANOTHER 1800ft down to sea level

Many sections were unrepaired and the steps were very worn out and extremely tiny forcing us many times to walk up or down flights of steps by standing sideways.

Luckily we packed some buns, biscuits, drinks and a flask of hot coffee. We had picnic lunch up in one of the watch towers sharing jokes about my poor stamina and her family background as possible mountain-goat herders many generations ago.

It was her first time visiting ANY part of the Great Wall....actually mine too. Here I have to take my hat off to the chinese civilization during that time who constructed this wall. Its built on some of the most inaccessible terrain and cost a million lives.

I could barely make it up to the top with the help of a cable car and a tram and these guys without electricity or sophisticated machines could build such a structure 5000+km long truly amazed and humbled me.

We returned to Beijing by 7pm that evening totally exhausted. She wanted to do some shopping before leaving the next day Sunday back to Shenzhen. Dropped by Silk Street near the hotel. We didnt really find anything she liked ('We have all this in Shenzhen and the quality is much better than here, dont waste your money')

I did spot some ties and a backpack that I liked and pretty much needed. Here my gal excelled.

Shop keeper opening price 80rmb for a Salvatore Ferragamo........ 10 rmb she countered to the shopkeeper's disbelief......... she settled at 15rmb each after 10 minutes of haggling and I picked up 8 ties for 120rmb from Hugo Boss, Ferragamo, Fendi, Ungaro and Dunhill

I spotted a very nice Swiss Army luggage set with spare Ali Baba bag and Laptop bag. Shop keeper opened up at a very fair 350rmb..........my gal countered with 80rmb and after 5 minutes of bargaining kung-fu had settled it for me at 110rmb

I brought her to a nearby jewelery shop to get her a beautiful jade pendant that cost 1800rmb. She said that it was just too expensive even for her to accept it and its carving meaningless to her. Me cant read Chinese characters so she said lets go look at something else.

Ok then..... I let her choose one for herself then. We went 3 stores down and she picked out an elegant little jade pendant carved out like a cabbage. How much? The defeated shopgirl replied '250rmb'

Lastly we dropped by an antique shop and I found for myself a very nice 300 year old certified flat jade piece that ancient middle and upper class chinese people used to sew onto the front of their hats. She bargained down the price to 450rmb for me.

By 10pm after the shopping and a walk up and down wangfujing, we retired tired but happy back to our room.

Continued later...........