The Great Wall

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Day three

Chris's Section

My comment yesterday about getting over jet lag was a little premature. I went to bed at 11pm last night. Got to sleep some time after 4am. Up at 6.30. Nice. Red bull time!

Anyway, today was a fab day. We set off on our trip to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. This is one of the best preserved (or restored) sections of the wall. The views were spectacular. I hope the pics do it justice. This section of the wall winds it's way through the peaks. We had to walk for 15 minutes, up hundreds of steps, just to get to the wall. Then we walked about 2k along the wall, then back. It was extremely steep in places and our legs were completely destroyed by the end. Some sections were so steep we had to climb on all fours. It was also very hot (at least 25c) which made the walk even more tiring. But it was worth it. I was worried about it being a disappointment, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Knackering, but truly wonderful.

The hawkers outside the wall were very amusing. They try to sell their wares in a pretty aggressive way. A few blocked our path, thrusting 'I walked the great wall' t-shirts into our faces, shouting “one dollar, one dollar”. At one point we actually had to run away from them. All part of the experience. In the end they're just trying to make a living.

As I said yesterday, we paid £26 for the tour, which seemed steep at first, but it was well worth it. The place we stopped for the provided lunch was first class. I must have sampled a dozen Chinese dishes. Very very tasty indeed.

A couple of observations about china so far. Spitting in the street is pretty common. Every bloke seems to do it. They spit everywhere. Proper chesty grebblers.

Toddlers wear trousers with a split up the rear. If they need to pee or poo, they just squat down and do it in the street. Interesting.

The Chinese put sugar in (or on) everything. Meat, fruit, milk, even in sausages (another traveller told me they experienced this). The bread is also slightly sweet. Great if you're putting jam on, but not so great with bacon and eggs.

We leave the Happy Dragon hostel tomorrow for a night in another hostel. The plan tomorrow is to go to the Forbidden City. Should be good. On Sunday we fly to Xi'an for the next leg of our adventure.


Louise's Section

Ok folks, Chris covered most things apart from waking me up at 3am to say he wasn't tired!! Good job I was starting to stir a bit. Had a fab time at the wall but was convinced until we got back down I was going to die!!! So very steep and I am very unfit so to be expected I guess, but I am proud that I did it, it's amazing. Still can't work out how a donkey got up to the top as couldn't do steps or cable car!!

I'm learning to haggle on the bottles of water now so saving a bit of money albeit 20p. The food was superb at Mr Yangs near the wall but embarrassingly had to resort to a fork or I was going to starve.

Again thought I was going to die on the return bus trip, the enormously large beer was a bad idea at lunch and the roads here are very uneven so had to plead for a wee stop, mmm lovely squat toilet time again. Still can't work out why they don't provide toilet roll, not sure what the Chinese actually do hygiene wise here. Luckily others went too so didn't feel to pathetic but did have another 2 hours ahead and did not want to be known by the the rest of the group as the English girl that wet herself!

Had a dumpling party tonight, timed ever so well as I had given in and had a pizza 5 mins before the dumplings started. They were actually hard to make, ours looked like Cornish pasties but tasted well nice and success with the chopsticks, hurrah!!!

Left Chris in the bar with our new friend Paul from Newcastle, very nice chap, may catch up with him in a few more locations.

Hope everyone is well back home. May be a few days before another entry as on the move to Xi'an Sunday.

xx

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Comments

[Gill]

Wow
Wow u guys u r doing so much already and good to hear u r making friends along the way. Hope u get your sleeping sorted v soon. I'm just waiting for Jo to arrive before heading to china town.Food will be nowhere near as good or exotic as you've been experiencing. Have a good flight and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the governent say ok to fly to Thailand by July!!!!!! Much love gill xxx

[Oli Gosling]

Bring your own!
Looks like you're having a great time in Beijing. Spitting was supposed to have been banned before the olympics but what can you do! For the toilet though you must take some tissue or loo roll whenever you go out as it's never provided. Enjoy Xian and try a Xinjiang (Chinese muslim) restaurant they do great lamb kebabs and the tastiest noodles, there should be some listed in the lonely planet if you have it. A