Snakes and Ladders

Our friends' last day in Beijing so we decided to take them to a park in the hills to the west of Beijing called Badachu (Eight Great Sites) - the sites in question being eight temples dating from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, scattered around the arid slopes. Spring seems to have quickly moved on to summer - 29C, blue skies, gorgeous day.

It seems that you can't have a hill in China without a cable-car up and a slide down. The slide at Great Wall Mutianyu is good, but this one is even better, snaking about 3km from top of the hill to the park entrance. You can pick up quite a speed if you want, but there's always some slowcoach in front to spoil the fun.