You know when you get these 'great ideas' in your head and then afterwards think 'why the .... did i want to do this?' Well i had one of those moments last week. Sitting quietly chatting about different places we had and had not visited since being in China we thought that as the weather is improving as regards to temperature (its always dry and sunny here anyways)maybe we could now go to visit that greatest of walls before it gets to busy with tourists. So we booked our hostel in Beijing, wangled Monday morning off work and off we went. Booked the wall tour at the hostel and took it easy that day in readiness i.e. we only had 4 pints on saturday night!
Morning came and we were bright and early after a bad nights sleep 'cos of some American girl with an irritating voice who insisted on chatting in the hallway after being clubbing. Our guide picked us up at 8.15 and off we went in a small minibus along with 2 French guys. It was really wierd 'cos you travel all this way with no mountains in sight and then they suddenly appear out of nowhere, huge and imposing mountain range and your suddenly smack in the middle of it!! We kept trying to spot the wall along the top as we drove through and it felt quite exciting when we did - kind of like driving to a theme park as a kid and then you spot a ride in the distance and know you're really close. We arrived, got out, coated up and toileted ourselves in preparation (why do men never need the toilet btw?)
We went to the Mutianyu part of the wall, which is supposedly not as commercialised but a little more difficult than Badaling, but no worries as there were 2 cable cars up or for the mad people a walkway. Our guide got our tickets and said 'this way' and like good little tourists off we trotted behind him and the French guys who all walked much quicker than me. After 10mins of steep steps and no guide in sight in front of us we realised we were not going to the cable car but were on the walked section (for mad people) Now those who know me know i do not do hills/steps, and now have a bad chest to add to the problem. So dilemma time do we carry on or do we go back and not actually visit/walk on the wall. Of course we kept on going with breathers/rests every seemingly few minutes when here comes our guide back looking for us, after a rant off us both he apologised and said 'but i asked the others how they wanted to get to the top' Anyways i finally made it the top, Jamie said i should feel a great sense of achievment - i said 'pant' id 'pant 'rather' have taken 'pant' the cable car 'pant'.
The views were brilliant even though it was a bit hazy and we walked for almost 2 hours along the wall, which had even more steps, but by then i was past feeling! In our opinion walking along the wall certainly lived up to all expectations, I don't know why or how but it was an amazing feeling, and how they built it in such terrain is beyond belief - but build it they did! We came back down by one of the cable cars and i bought a very touristy 'great wall' hat to celebrate the fact that i was still alive!!
Next wekeend we are going to the seaside!!
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