Great Wall of China

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This was one of the the things we were most looking forward to on our trip. We walked a 14km section of the Great Wall starting at Gubeikou across to the section at Simatai, the scenery of the wall snaking over the ridges was spectacular. As the wall followed the contours of the hills we had some very steep climbs but the views were well worth it. In total it took us around 4 hrs to walk the 14km stretch. At the end we crossed over the Simatai Reservoir by rope bridge to the zip wire to descend to our night's lodgings. The next morning we got up at 4.45am (!!) and climbed to the highest ridge to watch the sun rise. As the sun came up over the mountains the sun light caught sections of the wall and highlighted it from the dark contrast of the mountains. Karen joined in a Tai Chi lesson for beginners from our guide during the sun rise to help ward off the cold.

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