What's this "Great Wall" I keep hearing about?

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As mentioned in my last blog, I made it to Beijing okay and found my hostel quite easily. On Saturday I went to check out the dirt market, which is a market for antiques/jewelry/art etc (clever name). I didn't really find anything though but it was still pretty cool to see all the "junk".

On Sunday, I traveled to the great wall with my hostel. There were 20 of us booked and we headed off at 7:30 am. After a 2 1/2 hour drive, we pulled into a small town, picked up an old lady and drove another 5 minutes. Apparently this 67 year old lady was our guide. I wouldn't be as impressed if we were at restored part of the wall, but we were at a "secret" part some steep climbing and loose stones/gravel the whole way. We hiked up the hills and made it to the wall within 40 minutes. We were able to walk along the wall for over 2 hours and took some amazing pictures. We hopped of the wall, headed back down another hill and wound up back in the village where we picked our guide up. We had a tasty lunch and headed back to the hostel. I was quite amazing to see this part of the wall as most pictures I had seen were of the touristy/restored part. Check em out!!!!

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Photos

We're walking where?????
This is the start of the hike and the view of the wall where we were hiking to.

Ohhhhhhhh, right......
THIS Great Wall!!!!!!!

A nice hike
We started at the first "pillar" in the background and started hiking along the wall for nearly 2 hours.

Secret Wall
As you can see, this was NOT the excursion to the restored section of the wall.

What a view!!!
Reflecting on the journey I had just been on.

I used to be shy like this
A little boy with his grandpa a little too shy for the camera.