Our day on The Great Wall - Mutianyu

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We got up at 6:30am today very excited about going to the Great Wall. We arranged a tour via the Happy Dragon Hostel in Beijing (not that we were actually staying therseemed we kind of adopted it as our hostel). We had breakfast and although we were due to set off for 7:30 it was well past 8 when we actually got on the bus. We made a few stops at other hostels on the way and eventually made it to Mutianyu at around 10am. We were told that lunch was scheduled for 1:30 after which point we would be getting the bus back so we only had 3 and a half hours to walk the wall and get back.

We started off by getting the cable car up to the wall which was good as could see over all the trees and as it was a really clear and sunny day we could see the wall and watch towers meandering in the distance for miles. You arrive at station 6 and the are 23 stations in total on this part of the wall approximately 3.5km to the last station.

We walked back from 6 to 1 which is where you can find the original old walls- not yet renovated. We walked a little past station 1 to where the wall just crumbles away and your not supposed to go. We stopped here to take it all in- the views, the peace and quiet (which you don't get very much in China) and just the fact we were in China on the Great Wall. there were some steep climbs up steps to this point which was initially tiring but we soon recovered and it didn't look very steep the other way to 23 - ha ha so we thought. We walked back to station 6 to start our climb to 23.

The walk from 6-14 was pretty steady wit's gradual steps and hills, the scenery was beautiful across the landscape so we stopped and took loads of photos. Surprisingly the wall was quiet so we didn't have loads of crowds to contend with, neither were there hundreds of hawkers which apparently there are in Badaling. Once at watch tower 15 we went up to the top and had another moment taking it all in. At this point we didn't think we had enough time but we saw our Argentinian friend charging past us so we thought we would too and I'm glad we did.

The walk from 15 onwards got a lot more tough and when you get to watch tower 19 you can see the steps ahead and it immediately brought back memories of me struggling up Mount Fuji and not being able to breathe, but luckily this time I didn't have a cold and although it was hard I made it - Pete obviously beat me which as usual he delighted in! This watch tower is very high up the wall so the views were even better. The sun was shining but you could see the snow covering the mountains in the distance which looked amazing.

We decided that this was as far as we needed to go and decided to head back. The walk back is a lot easier on the lungs but tough on the knees and ankles as its down thousands of uneven steps. A great bit to this part of the wall is the toboggan ride back down from station 6. I was quite excited about this bit as like the big kid I am I couldn't wait to see how fast it would go. Whilst in the queue we were asked by a French couple if we would mind taking their children on with us as they had four kids and they weren't allowed to go on their own. We agreed so I took the little girl and Pete took the little boy. I think they enjoyed it although I couldn't really race it down as hoped but it was fun all the same and made a great ending to a fantastic day on the wall.

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