The Great Wall of China

---

I arrived in Beijing yesterday feeling like a giant and immediately people started trying to scam, ie the taxi drivers, known as the taxi mafia. I got on the bus and was impressed - all the stops were announced over the tannoy in Chinese and English.
Got to the hostel which was very Chinese looking and is situated right next to the Forbidden City. I took a stroll through the Forbidden City and got non stop hassle from people wanting money for tickets, lifts (in their put puts), guided tours ("Please, this is my livelihood"), possibly a prostitute - for some reason I stand out more here than I did in Moscow. Botherances aside, I got out the front and stood in front of the picture of Mao and the whole place really does look magnificent. Not much else to say about Beijing itself, other than what I'll cover in the other blogs.

Today I was up at 6am so I could go on a 7km trek along the Great Wall - they're correct when they call it the Great Wall because it really is spot on. To get there involved a 2.5 hour drive in a van with a guy who drives like the people in Moscow, and by that I mean MENTAL. I wouldn't even drive like that in a computer game! When we somehow arrived the temperature was around -10c. It was so cold my nostril hairs were starting to freeze, although it's maybe a good time of year to come because we didn't see a single other person through the entire walk. We set off and were joined by a few locals who started trying to sell us the usual bollocks (and I'm not talking Chinese delicacies) but then just joined us for a pleasant stroll. They turned out to indespensible, spitting out the occasional English word pointing out patently obvious things and guiding our arms as we came to steep bits.
The walk itself was excellent. It turned out to be pretty punishing with some very steep climbs, some steps being about 15 inches high. There was also a good group of us - 4 German lezzers, 2 of whom I'm sharing a dorm with (I assume they're all lesbians because at first I thought it was two straight couples), and there was a young couple from Hong Kong and a lone traveling Aussie (as always). I'd say the walk was about as punishing as maybe Helvellyn so it felt like an achievement when it was done. Some of the views are incredible and I should have a few decent pictures of it for which you'll have to wait until Friday.

Anyways, read my other Beijing blogs to see my new plans and how I got scammed!

---

Photos

A Wall
We walked the length of this, and then some

Some bits got steep
Are we supposed to climb that??? No, we took a shortcut here - imagine building that thing!!

Stunning Views
It was deadly silent once we got here