Nearly there!

Just 200 kilometers away from our final goal, the rowing course in Mapo. A few hills and a visit to the great wall are the only things that are keeping us from cycling straight towards the end. We fully enjoy our last days of cycling, camping and meeting people along the way, even if the rain is pouring down on us. Beijing is getting close, the roads are getting better and the police is everywhere.

We enjoy the beautiful scenery that the hills west of Beijing offer us. Holy buddhist mountains with thousands of temples, and bits and pieces of the great wall in the distant which linger on the top of the mountain range (who came up with the idea to make this thing?).

The Olympics are in full progress. Everytime we stop for a break, we try to find a place with a good television. Unfortunately, they only show the Chinese teams, so we have to be lucky they compete against a Dutch crew. But with the Chinese doing so brilliant at their 'own' Olympics, at least the people here are smiling (sometimes). And we keep on smiling too, the dutch rowing is doing great (already two boats in the semi finals (LW2x and M4) , and 3 more (W8, M8 and LM4) to go) so our route is still towards Mapo, to Shunyi lake.