BEIJING day2

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Thursday 10th February

We both had a fantastic long sleep, woke up and opened the curtains to 3 inches of snow!! Wasnt expecting that at all!
A large breakfast followed by some hot tea and we are waiting to be picked up outside the hotel. Linda arrives with our driver and we head off towards The Mutianyu Great Wall.

We set off through the city through the snow covered City and traffic is quite slow going but moving. Its everyones first day back after a weeks holiday and theres some glum faces cycling along the road.
Ive read in the paper that North of china have not had rain or snow for a record of 108 days and its badly affected the wheat harvest. They'll be welcome of all this snow then.

China's Great Wall is the world's longest architectural structure and is widely renowned as one of the seven great wonders of the world. The wall stretches 4,163 miles from the Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu Province to the Shanhaiguan Pass in Hebei Province.
Like a gigantic dragon, this imposing wall meanders across mountains, spans vast plains and trudges through the barren deserts of China's northern interior. This amazing marvel of engineering took over 2,000 years to build. It is acclaimed to be a most magnificent miracle created by the Chinese people demonstrating the tenacity, diligence and wisdom of the Chinese people.

We are only going to visit The Mutianyu Great Wall which is is a section of the Great Wall of China located in Huairou County 70km northeast of Beijing.

We arrived a couple of hours later at Mutianyu Village at the base of the mountain which was lovely as its got los of traditional chinese houses and shops. The driver dropped us off at the Mutianyu Great Wall Cable Car Company where we took the ten minute trip the top.

As one of the best-preserved parts of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall used to serve as the northern barrier defending the capital and the imperial tombs.
First built in the mid-6th century during the Northern Qi, Mutianyu Great Wall is older than the Badaling section of the Great Wall. In the Ming dynasty, under the supervision of General Xu Da, construction of the present wall began on the foundation of the wall of Northern Qi. In 1404, a pass was built in the wall. In 1569, the Mutianyu Great Wall was rebuilt and till today most parts of it are well preserved. The Mutianyu Great Wall has the largest construction scale and best quality among all sections of Great Wall.

Built mainly with granite, the wall is 7-8 meters high and the top is 4-5 meters wide. Compared with other sections of Great Wall, Mutianyu Great Wall possesses unique characteristics in its construction.
We begin our walk by climbing the steps which takes us into the center of the wall and onto the path above. the snow is much deeper here than in Beijing and its made the wall look even more spectacular.

Watchtowers are densely placed along this section of the Great Wall as theres 22 watchtowers on this 2,250-meter-long stretch which are going to attempt to walk. Linda has given us one and a half hours to meet her back at the cable car so we get cracking and begin walking. The views over the sides are awesome as we are high up on a ridge in thee middle of a valley to either side of us. This section of Great Wall is surrounded by woodland and streams and the forest coverage rate is over 90 percent and must look equally amazing during the spring or summer.

We're moving slowly along as the snow is making the pathways slippy as the wall runs up and down following the contours of the steep mountainsides. In one section it rises with a gradient of nearly 90 degrees on bare rock posing a challenge to us climbing the steps which needed four or five stops to catch our breath. Once up n the highest part we could go no further so we stood and admired the wonderful views of what we had just walked. The cloud cover wasnt as bad as we thought it would be and as we started to descend it started to snow lightly making it even more enchanting.
We took our time getting back to meet the guide and although we are cold we're not bothered in the slightest as just being on this part of the Great Wall gives you a glow of achievement. Linda met us at the wall gate and we made our way back to the cable car for the journey back down.
Out the cable car window to our left we could see the famous Mutianyu Pass which section consists of 3 watchtowers, one big in the center and two smaller on both sides. Standing on the same terrace, the three watchtowers are connected to each other inside and compose a rarely seen structure among all sections of Great Wall. We chose not to take the open chairlifts up to look at these watchtowers closer as the view from the cable car was good enough and I think we've walked enough in the snow as we've both got cold and wet feet.

Once at the bottom we drove back out the village and stopped not far along the road at a Ming Cloisonne Vase factory where we were shown the step by step process of making vases which was pretty interesting. We had a look through the shop here and felt no pressure to buy anything which was a fine change from the usual tourist trap shops.
At the end of this short tour of the factory and shop we were given lunch of Sweet Corn soup, lots of Dim sums and drinks which was really tasty and a bargain at £6 for the two of us. A fine heat me up after climbing the wall and leaving the cold vase factory.

We headed back to the city to an old district of Beijing called Dongcheng where we're shoved on a rickshaw and peddled around the back streets.
Dongcheng is an urban district in Beijing covering the eastern half of Beijing's urban core and has a population of roughly 535,000. It is the second largest precinct in the area of the old city and its got very traditional housing and street layouts. Looking through the lanes and back doors of houses we could see the sometimes squalor conditions but yet safe enviroment that the old town people live in. Crime is almost zero here and its a very tight community.

We stop outside a house and we're welcomed in unexpectedly by the lady owner who sits us down in her dining room and serves us piping hot jasmine tea. In the room is an old man of about 80 years old who just sits and smiles the whole time as we enjoyed our tea and conversations via our translator.
Our guide Linda translates for us and explains that we are welcome to ask questions about anything we want which catches us off guard so I start asking about the swords and knives we passed on the way in! 😊. The husband and two sons live here but they have been away teaching Kung Fu in America for the last 6 months. They are instructors hence the reason for the rack of large Chinese swords and knives at the door entrance. The lady has been living here with her father, the old man who's sitting behind me enjoying his tea and smiling.
The kitchen walls are covered with photos of her sons and husband in Kung Fu stances and theres even a Fox TV interview photo as one of the sons will be taking part in next years Olympics.
Its all fascinating stuff and we are engrossed with the stories about life here in the old town.
The house itself was very small and had no toilet as they share a public toilet out on the street, its to save room we are told. All the houses in the old town are the same and honestly the kitchen floor was slightly bigger than a telephone box
It was a nice and unexpected visit and we thanked our host and the up to now silent old man said goodbye in Chinglish!
We walked out the courtyard, onto the snow covered street and past a large Drum Tower with a large Square in front of it which seemed to be a gathering point for the local men of Dongcheng as there was taxis, rickshaws and all kinds of services being offered to us as we walked to our car.
Phew! 'take us home' is the call and we're duly dropped off at the hotel where we had dinner and bedded up for the night.

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Photos

Mutianyu Great Wall
Built to keep the Mongolians out form the North

Great Wall Pathway
wide enough for 4 horses and carriage.

Mutianyu Great Wall
The Mutianyu section is 2,500 meters long.

Mutianyu Great Wall
Built to protect china from intrusion of the nomadic Hun ethnic minority in the north.

Mutianyu Great Wall
This fortified section was the site of many battles which took place during the Ming Dynasty.

Mutianyu Great Wall
The wall was reconstructed during the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) on the ruins of the wall built during the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-557)

Mutianyu Great Wall
The wall that we see today is primarily the result of a restoration that took place during the Ming Dynasty.

Mutianyu Great Wall
Construction of the Great Wall began early in the Warring States Period (475BC-221BC)

Mutianyu Great Wall
As Mongol raids continued over the years, the Ming devoted considerable resources to repair and reinforce the walls.

Mutianyu Great Wall
there are many different parts, in china, of the wall open to tourists.

Mutianyu Great Wall
Signal towers were built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.

Mutianyu Great Wall
Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600.

Mutianyu Great Wall - inside watchtower
one of 22 watchtowers along this section