The Great Wall

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It was an early start for our trip to the Great Wall. We had booked it the day before through some random travel agency. The pick-up spot was in front of the McDonald's just across the main road near where we were staying. I think we had to be there at about 6:30 am, too early for me. We didn't have to wait too long before the driver arrived. We were in a smallish mini van, which already had some people in and we set off to collect some more. After that we left the city and drove for a while. I can't remember how long, maybe an hour or two. We knew when we had arrived as the traffic became horrific. We were dropped in the carpark and the guide lead us to the main area. When we got there, I realised that it was the same place I have visited many years ago. However, it was now a lot more developed. There was a newer, posher cable car and also a Subway, if I'd have known how crap the included lunch would have been, I would have headed there for a sandwich instead.

After a short walk uphill, we were shown to the chairlift. My friend was super pissed off as she thought we would be getting the newer, nicer cable car. The queue was quite long, but it was fast moving and pretty soon we were on the chairlift. I had taken the same lift when I visited the Great Wall a long time ago. I couldn't really remember much about the journey, so I was content to let my eyes wander over the surrounding area. It was hard to believe that we were so close to Beijing as the area was so rural, nothing but trees and mountains, and, of course, the Great Wall for miles to see. When we alighted the chairlift it was a short walk to actually be on the wall. We headed up past a little mountain store selling very expensive drinks. That hadn't been there when I had visited years ago, instead people had sold extortinately priced drinks on the actual wall. We were at the section of the wall in Mutianyu, which is meant to be a less busy part of the wall. There were plenty of people there, but it wasn't insanely crowded like downtown Beijing was. There was plenty of space to walk around and you weren't stuck waiting behind people.

We took a walk along the wall. The weather was really nice and sunny, but not too hot, which made walking easier. The scenery was beautiful and it is cool to see the Great Wall stretching over the hills in front of you and behind you. The scale of the wall is amazing and I still can't get my head around how people manage to build it, especially because there was none of the technology we have today. The mountain views really reminded me of Korea. The rocky outcrops nestled among the trees made me homesick for Korea. My friend got bored of walking along the wall after a while, so she headed to the rest area near the cable car. I kept going and headed left for a while before heading back the way we had came. I didn't head straight back to meet her, but instead kept walking on for a bit, as I wanted to check out one of the turrets further on. After taking a look around that, I headed back to meet my friend.

Our cable car ticket gave us the option to take the toboggan back down the hill. I had done it on my previous trip to the Great Wall and it had been fun, but not amazing, so I decided not to do it again. I was more content to take the cable car back down and soak in more of the views. When we got back down, we headed over to the restaurant where we would have lunch. This place was pretty big, covering three floors and was set up for tour buses visiting the Great Wall. We were shown to one table and then moved to another table. We had to pay extra for drinks and a waitress came round and took our orders. The food arrived and I totally made a cultural faux pas. I am so used to living in Asia and having big communal meals, that I started to take food with my chopsticks. I then looked around and realised that no one else was. They were all using the serving spoons thats the restaurant had provided. Oops, I had probably mortally offended some of them. I quickly switched to using the serving spoons. The food was pretty crappy, we were obviously on the cheap option as there was zero meat and only bland vegetables dishes. I was starving so I was really disappointed that the food was so poor. If I had known, I would have headed to Subway for a sandwich. At least that would have filled me up.

After lunch, it was back in the van for the drive back to the city. Unfortunately, the van didn't drop us back at the hostel, but near Wangfujing Street. From there, it took us ages to get back to the hostel. Since our lunch had been a major disappointment, we decided just to grab an early dinner at the hostel. I have to say I am impressed with the variety that they have on offer. I decided to have a falafel burger with blue cheese sauce and a side of chips. We also got some dumplings to share. The dumplings were pretty meh, and I have definitely had better, but the burger and chips were amazing. I don't tend to eat a lot of Western food in China, unless I cook it myself and I would never make something like this, so it really hit the spot. We spent the evening chilling with some beers. Once again, the hostel had a great selection, so I tried a few of the different local independent brews. They were all pretty tasty.

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