Cycling DAY 4 - Huairou to Mutianyu

---

The ride up to Mutianyu section of the great wall is a mild 5-10% grade (except for the last 500 metres, which is a bit steeper). It is a constant pattern of climbs and short flat runs over a distance of about 20 km from Houairou. The road is wide, with good, clear shoulders and it is (mercifully) free of traffic; then again, this is the "low" season. With legs burning, we arrive at the bottom of the great wall. I feel like I have hit the wall in more ways than one.

The ride up is definitely worth it. We et a glimpse of the road through to Bohai and beyond. It looks much thr same as what we have ridden on. It is a pity that we did not have another day to explore this route inmore detail.

Puncture number 5 occurs on the way back down. Unfortunately this episode also buckles my back rim and, I ultimately discover, cracks the rim and hub. The culprit (apart from me) is a small grey patch in the bike lane. It seems that when houses are built, the mortar is mixed on the ground in the bike lane. Grey patches are common, but they have normally been scraped clean. On this occasion, the patch was not scraped clean, and in the fading light, I missed the huge lump of hardened mortar that I hit. Watch out for grey patches.

We spend the night at the Goose N Duck Ranch just out of Huairou.

Google Earth Resources:
Huairou to Mutianyu
Huairou to Goose N Duck Ranch
Changping to Mutianyu
Goose NDuck Ranch
Villiage Inn (Goose N Duck Ranch)
Bohai
MutianyuGreatWall

---