This is the last in a series of reports on my friend - a sportswriter for a Very Important Paper - who has been in Beijing covering the Olympics. Read about her long flight to China, how the Chinese deal with water bottles at security, her adventures with exotic cuisine and her taste in TV shows.

My pal says, you better have some good sneakers on, if you’re going to see the Great Wall of China, and that’s because all the stones on the “floor” of the wall stick up all over the place - making for a rocky romp, but the view, she says, is worth it - an incredible vista.

Note: get there before 9am if you can — otherwise, it is mobbed by locals.

Her Continental flight from Beijing to the U.S. was delayed a couple of hours; so our sports writer took the time to ingratiate herself with some flight attendants, offering them Olympic pins with her Very Important Paper’s logo on them, which were happily accepted. “Don’t worry, hon, I’m gonna take care of you!” said one of the grinning hostesses, and indeed she did - providing my pal with free drinks of an unspecified but alcoholic nature.

That made the trip go a little more smoothly. However, our scribe was most distressed to note that the video screen on her seatback was broken. And alas, there was not a single empty seat to move to.

And so, she read and dozed - dreaming of all those Mary Tyler Moore re-runs she was missing out on…and no doubt pondering that question for the ages: exactly how old are those Chinese gymnasts, anyway??