Calzone Factory

Ha Ha – Martyn was finally got by his mis-hearing of Chinese. He was so excited all day – not by The Great Wall (although that was truly great) but instead by what he thought was the promise of a Calzone Factory.

It was Closoinne – you know, the French enamelling thing – apparently it’s a traditional Chinese art as well!

Poor bloke, he was quite disappointed. Until he saw the furnace and solder and other bits – then he decided it was quite cool, not quite as good as a Calzone but quite cool! It was also expensive (and not at all ‘us’) so we didn’t buy any. Hadn’t realized it was all made of copper – tiny little bits of copper glued on to the outside of copper and then the paint fills in the gaps. Very fiddly and very clever.

Anyway, all that came after lunch. Before lunch was The Great (not fire) Wall. Martyn conquered this one as well but then so did I – hurrah. We went to the Mutianyu section. Walked up the hill to watchtower 8 and then along the wall to watchtower 23. Well I say ‘along’ – obviously we went ‘along’ the top but well, its VERY undulating and involved LOTS more steps. The ones before gate 23 were particularly painful – 455 of them followed by 20 so steep that Martyn went up on hands and feet! So now we have thighs of steel and knees of jelly! Absolutely amazing though – a truly great wall!

And then we realized. It was our last ‘Big Thing’ of ‘Big Trip. We really are coming home soon. Although our bus ride back to the hotel did make us question that once or twice…….driver suffered from ‘Sudden Braking Sydnrome’ quite badly and our seats faced backwards which made the whole thing even more interesting as we could feel the effects and see the faces of our group who could see through the windscreen!

But yes, only one more day to go and the group has planned a shopping day. Not sure what we’ll do but its all after the excitement of this evening anyway – and what does this evening have in store for us? Well half our group quite like their beer (to say the least) and last night they went to a bar. In the interests of ‘group trip’ (and because we have nothing better to do) we’re off to the bar with them this evening. Of course we’re in China  - it’s a Karaoke bar. I have my ear plugs ready.