Climbing the Wall ...

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Yes, I know this will be a quaduple entry, but I have a lot of catching up to do.

I had wanted to climb the wall on my birthday, but the weatherman forcasted rain, so the dream of hauling my aged body up the great wall was shot. I figured that doing it two days before my birthday would be just as good.

I had read quite a bit about the different sections of the wall. Badaling is the most popular, but it is also the most touristed, so that was out. Simitai was another option, but when I realized that any tour of that particular section entailed hiking, I crossed that off my list as well. Mutianyu seemed like the best option. Beautiful scenery with a nice, subdued hike - that was just the ticket.

I booked a tour with my hostel, which came up to 320 yuan (about $40 CAD). It seemed like I was the only one from my hostel that had booked that day, but it ends up that I shared my tour with six others - a dutch couple who were at the beginning of a six month Asian vacation (!) and four Poles who had just meet each other that day. Our tour guide was a cute small girl with an infectious smile. Her english wasn't the best, but it was good enough. The fact that she was so upbeat made you forget her poor english.

The drive from the Beijing City Center to Mutianyu was about two hours long, and I slept most of the way there. When we arrived, we were told that we would have to pay an additional 50 yuan to cover the cost of the cable car up to the wall enterance - which of course, none of us were informed about. The dutch guy was pretty upset about it, but our guide couldn't be blamed - she just worked for the company, after all. Those sort of 'misunderstandings' seem to happen a lot over here.
The cable car ride was beautiful - but steep. I bet you know what I was thinking - but we arrived at the top safely. The very height of the climb made me realize what a feat it was for them to build this wall so many years ago. It is unbelievable, really. How did they get all those rocks up there?

Seeing the wall up close for the first time - it is hard to describe. Ok, I won't be so lazy. It was beautiful. It appeared out of the side of the mountain silent, powerful and majestic. No book or television show can begin to relate how beautiful it is. At one point, I put down my camera, sat back and enjoyed the view.

It was obvious that parts of it were disintegrating, but all things considered, it was relatively well maintained.
Our tour guide seemed hell bent on hiking a good portion of the wall, but I wasn't too interested. I was just happy exploring little portions of the wall itself, so I told her to go ahead with the others and I would meet her later at the cable car entrance.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

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Comments

[Sue]

Awesome
Looks like you had an awesome day for the Wall. Great photos too! Did you see any of those crazy vendors lugging coolers of cold water up and down the wall, just waiting to find a desperate tourist to sell it to?