Beijing

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Today was amazing.

Met a girl called Maddy from Canada in the morning while we were eating breakfast at the hostel. Spontaneously decided we'd all go to the wall together. Some people she had met yesterday had recommended we go to a part of the wall called Huanghua (or thereabouts) instead of the tourist trap Badaling. We headed off to a train station in north east Beijing, where we were supposed to get on a bus. We've been told many times by other travellers and even in the Lonely Planet Guidebook (our bible!!), that we need to be wary of fake buses and people posing as bus drivers trying to get you into their bus by proposing cheaper tickets and then charging you like 100 yuan at the end, so we were very wary. Saw a bunch of other tourists get scammed. Got on the right bus, and then at the insistence of one of the conductors, got off at a stop before we were supposed to because he had a minivan to take us to the wall. We got a bit nervous at this point, but being three instead of two, we held it together. The diver tried to get us to go to another part of the wall than what we wanted, but we argued our way.

It took about an hour to reach the wall, all the while we were getting really worried that we had been scammed. The spectacular mountain views out our windows didn't quite manage to quell our fears. (All was well and good though, we got to the wall safe and sound and for a very reasonable price -200 all up round trip with two hours to wander.)

Turns out the part of the wall we had asked to go to was technically still owned by members of the local community, so there were no Jade shops, no restaurants, no souvenir traps and best of all, the entrace fee was only 2 kwai each. Technically the part of the wall we were on wasn't even meant to be climbed (there was a big sign) - we have a feeling the chinese government was trying to dissuade tourists from the cheaper, more scenic areas so they could make more money. The Huanghua version of an entrace guard was a local man who had been ice fishing wandering up to us on a little path, asking us for the money and then leaving us be.

Took us about fifteen minutes clambering up a little track to get to the wall, and along the way we couldn't for the life of us figure out how we were going to actually get up on it. As the wall came into view ahead of us we realised how - a flimsy ladder attached to the wall with some wire that lead up to a little window...

None of us was particularly confident about the ladder, but I went first anyway. It was definitely well, well worth it. We had the section of the wall completely to ourselves, and the views were just breathtaking. Looking out, we saw mountains in every direction, a frozen lake and little towns nestled in the valleys in between. I have never been more awestruck by anything in my life. We climbed the wall in one direction for about an hour ( a rather strenuous activity!), took lots of pictures, wrote out our names with chalk-like rocks. The photos will not come close to doing the wall justice. I can't imagine how splendid it would look in the summer time.

Just to stress the pure pleasure of the day, if nothing else about this trip is good, the wall would have made it worth every cent.

Walked back down the wall and to the minivan, where our minibus driver was still waiting. Turns out he was a really nice guy, and even took some pictures of us all together. Got home to the hostel rather late that night, ravenous and exhausted, but extremely happy.

Walked the wall, and made a great new friend out of Maddy. What more could you want from a day?

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