Great Wall and Chengde

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On our way from Beijing to Chengde we stopped at the Jinshanling area of the great wall. This is definitely the least ‘touristy’ portion of the wall I have ever been to. There were about five other people besides our group anywhere to be found on the wall. It was awesome.
We spent about three days in Chengde. When we arrived there we visited a minority student college where we chatted with students who were English majors. We stayed at a hotel on the side of a mountain that overlooked the city. During our time in Chengde we visited the summer palace of the emperors (this is the summer palace where most former empoerors actually spent most of their time, the one in Beijing was only used during the summer primarily by Dowager Cixi), a mini version of the potala palace (built by emperor Qianlong for the Dalai Lama when came to visit one time), Puning Si Temple (houses the world’s largest wooden Buddha statue), and trekked up a mountain to see the hammer peak. Chengde is a great day/weekend trip from Beijing.

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Photos

Jinshanling Great Wall
it was a much more rustic part of the wall than i have ever been to