The Great Wall was amazing. I stayed at a large hostel right at the wall and was the only one there. I was in a room for 8 but I was the only one in the whole building. There were three hotel/hostels in the area and one of them had one other person staying at it. It was a girl from Australia. We had a beer together that night on the patio looking over at the Great Wall. The bar/patio was closed so we bought the beer from the shop and drank it on the patio. It was a deserted little town. All the shops were empty too. The accommodation, location and view were great, but I think most people just do a day trip to there. They are missing out. It was a three hour drive from Beijing and I got to climb the Great Wall twice then over two days, in two directions.
So the Great Wall. WOW! Man I have seen some cool things. I hiked 10km's yesterday in the heat (over 35 degrees). I had to buy 6 waters along the way from the harassing people selling stuff and walking with us. I did not mind them being there though, as I needed more water. Today no one bugged me or walked with me trying to sell things. It was a nice temperature today and there was a breeze.
The walk yesterday started in a forest and we hiked up a narrow trail to get to the wall. It was challenging. That area of the wall has not been restored and the walking was rough in parts. It is steep up and down and there are not nice steps to climb on. It was great. I did 18 towers yesterday and it took around 3 hours. I came down on a zip line over a gorge. Today I walked back up to the Wall and went the other direction and did the 13 towers you could do. Then it stops as it is not safe anymore. Today’s walk was on a restored part and had stone steps to climb. After yesterday is was not as authentic. But it was still amazing. The views were spectacular. I climbed to the highest tower. Today I walked at least 10km's. It was all up hill today and then I had to turn around and come back down. Yesterday we were dropped off in a town 10km's away and walked to Simatai were I stayed for the night. I went yesterday with a group of 20 or so. Today I went on my own.
Where I went was not a heavy tourist area as the hiking is challenging and most people opt for an easier walk. It was spectacular. To think they brought all the rocks and mortar up the hills and that it goes on for 600km's. It was built to protect China from Mongolia and if there was a problem there are towers between the wall and Beijing that they would light on fire along the way to notify Beijing. It was a three hour drive from Beijing to get to the part of the wall that I climbed. It was spectacular to climb on.
I am in Beijing now staying with Kirsty and Yuan, her daughter (they are friends of a friend). They are great hostesses and have been so welcoming. Kirsty has been fabulous. She arranged the trip to the Great Wall for me. She did a great job, it was spectacular. Poor her, she worked on report cards, but she got them done. Way to go!
I flew from Vientiane to Bangkok on Thai Airways. It was an hour flight and I got a meal, salmon steak to boot. They also gave each female on the flight a purple orchid corsage. I then flew from Bangkok to Beijing on SriLankan Airlines no flowers, but I did get a free pack of playing cards.
Check out the photos at the following link and three videos. I had a request for more videos, so I am trying. Sorry there is a lot of wind noise in them. I hope they upload ok for you. I am an amateur.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/GreatWallChina
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4612133817433624552
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9004130231350164791
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9004130231350164791
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment