Gubei Kou to Jinshialing day 2

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Gubei Kou to Jingahialong

Day 2

We woke up around 7:00 AM and the Chinese couple was already up and getting ready to leave . We hurried up and got out of the tent to ask them for directions to Jinshialing. They were very helpful and said the path at the end of the last tower would lead to Jinsialing and they would put a black arrow along the way for us to follow. They left and we made breakfast and packed up and around 9:30 we were ready for our hike. We got to the starting point of the trail fairy quickly. It was a narrowed, dirt, bumpy trail along the side of the mountain. We walked on it for about an hour until we reached a flat corn field. There we started to realize there were some orange marks painted on the rocks or tree branches as a trail follower. We so saw some red and blue strings attached to trees also as a trail follower. We followed then and soon reached the entrance sign of Jinshialing. Yay we had made it!!! We continued the walk bordering a corn field and a well and soon were in a farm where some farmers wee working on the fields. I didn't see the mark on the rock and continued to walk forward , but Kyle who was behind me taking pictures did noticed it and also the farmers were pointing towards the right, so I backed and we made a right to continue on the trail. We then reached a fork where one of the blue a red strings was attached so we followed it. It lead to some farm field and at the end we saw the Great Wall, however it was closed with bar wire and a sign that said military area. A group of Chinese people all ladies and young girls were ahead of bus and signaled and told us that it was closed and there was no path. Kyle went to take some pictures and then we headed back. When we were heading back a Chinese man and the couple we had asked for directions were heading our way . They seemed to know he path so we turned around and followed them. They were exploring but there was no path so after chatting in chinglish with the honest women and restog for a bit we headed back to where he trail divided as we t the other way. About 100 meters after the fork we saw the orange mark( now we knew to follow orange marks and not the red and blue.) The path was bordering the mountains and we could see ahead of us on the rift the Great Wall. It was completely quiet and empty as that section was not allowed to tourists. We walked along the path and it turned to a steep hill with a few rocks and bumps along the way, but nothing hard to climb . It was a pleasant hike with sunshine and blue skies and a cool breeze blowing. We walked for about 1.5 hours on the path until we reached a valley and to our surprise a homestay. The Chinese man at the homestay welcomed us and offered to sell some water, juice and ice cream and even lunch , we stocked up with water and drank a cold sugary drink for energy and took some pictures of the area while resting. The homestay 's name was "Yumii" ( corn and it had a real corn on the front of the entrance for people to recognize it. We wandered around and ask how much for a night and the rooms looked pretty comfortable some even had a bathroom and hot water and they served three meals everything for 200 rmb a night for two people. There was a sign that said directions towards Jinshialing so we followed it. The trail was again a dirt trail but this time it was narrower and steeper. Along the way we passed some guys and a girl (foreigners) who told us the wall should be up ahead and we would reached it in about 45 minutes. Finally at the very last stretch of the trail we began to see blue skies and an opening area between the trees. At that point we knew the Wall a a a right there. We had to go around the trail to get to the entrance of the wall as we were on the north side ( the side which had no entrance because it was were the Mongols were coming from at the time of the war between Chinese and Mongols). We got on he wall and saw the end of he military section on the left which meant we would follow the path on the right. We decided to stop for lunch and a break there. Several Chinese people walked along us and to our surprise the chinese couple we saw in Gubei Kou were getting on the wall through the military section. We ate our protein bar and apple lunch and read for a little while enjoying the solitude, quit, peaceful and mystical environment of the t

Great Wall without any tourists and then headed forwards to continue the hike.

We hiked up for about 500 meters and a Chinese staff of the Great Wall stopped us to ask us for tickets we said we had tickets from Gubei Kou and so we had to buy new ones for Jinshialing. It was a little price as they were 65 rmb per person , but we needed to go forward tsp we paid them. The hike continued along the wall with some very well maintained sections although not restored and we began to see more and more tourists. After about an hour walking we reached the main. Entrance to Jinshialing and a small plaza were taxis and buses would drop and pick up tourists. We tried to find a place to buy some juice and snacks but had no luck. This part of the wall was completely restored and looked very touristy. The crowds began to be bigger and bigger and the local Chinese started to stare at us and yell the common

"Hellooooooo"

"Ni haoooo"

" can can lian he ren lao wai" ( look look two foreigner persons)



And of course the impertinent honest women Saying "hen zhou" ( heavy backpack) and trying to touch it and grab it. We quickly walked through this section trying to ignore the annoying tourists. We reached the middle part of the big climb and sat down dr a bit, I read and wrote on my blog while Kyle checked out a tower at the end which looked like a dead end to the wall. After Kyle confirmed the tower was a dead end we continued up to he highest point. One cool thing about being in his part which was all restored was that at every tower there was a very marble made book telling the history of that specific tower. We reached. The highest tower of this section and saw a small souvenir stand whih was extremely overpriced. We bought a juice for 29 rmb and ignored the man selling us a set of postcards for 40 rmb. R

The place was full with loud and annoying groups of friends and families so we drank our juice and quickly left the area. The hike continued on the restored section of the wall, big 3 brick steps followed by 2 brick steps and uneven walls. We reached the cable car entrance and again it was full of tourists so we went the opposite direction. As we got farther away from the crowds we started to see the Great Wall of Jinshialing unrestored and the level of difficulty to climb became harder and the steps became steeper and steeper. We separated a bit from the crowds and started to see in the far distance the top and highest tower we had seen. It turned out to be the highest point of Simatai, this meant we were closed to Simatai, so we kept on walking hoping to get as closer as we could to tis area which is supposed to be the lost beautiful section , but that has been closed for 3 years due to a bridge w

Being slanted and very narrowed for people to cross. It was supposed to be opened on October 1 for the national week holiday, but he honest government did not opened it and now they are suing it will be opened on October 28th. (hopefully but who knows). We passed a few vendors along the way and of course they were selling juice water snacks at a very expensive price. We passed through different mountain side paths to go down to the village along the way. We finally reached the highest peak and tower of Jinshialing and decided wait a bit to go up and camp because there stillwere people hiking and seeing the sunset. We thought we had seen a guard and were ready to move back to the previous tower, but as Kyle went to get some photos a Chinese lady selling beer and snacks she told him in chinglish that Simatai first tower was two towers away and that we were still on tourist allows zone and we could sleep there. That known he bought some snacks and beers and went to get me to hike up to three more towers and set camp for the night. While we were setting camp and making dinner we noticed some lights on the previous and next tower. They seemed to be signaling to each other so we thought they were guards. Immediately we turned off our headlights and were very quiet trying to wait and see the movement of the lights. We got really worried because we saw movement and one of he lights ( the one on the bottom tower) was coming towards us! All scary thoughts came to my mind

, i thought Chinese guards are going to yell at us , kick us out of the wall and even kick us out of China! The lift moved quickly and passed our tower along the side path and reached the next tower quickly. We waited for about 30 minutes quietly and without lights until we were sure no one was there. It took us awhile to get cooking and dinner ready as we had to do t without direct light. After eating dinner and cleaning up we decided to leave our backpacks packed and ready to go in case we had to rush out the next morning trying to escape Chinese guards! What a day!!!

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