Great Wall Day!

We were picked up for the drive to the Great Wall at Mutianyu at 0800.  I have to admit that I was a little anxious about the day as it started off overcast/smoggy.  The drive that I thought would be the longest (I thought 2+ hours from Beijing) was actually really short!  I think it took us only 1 1/2 hours!

By the time we reached Mutianyu, the sun reappeared and the weather was gorgeous!  We parked in the lot and passed the small line of vendors to find the cable car to the top of the mountain to the wall itself.  You are able to walk up the mountain, but we were told by many people prior to our trip to save our energy by doing the cable car, especially with kids.  

Jim purchased the tickets and off we went, except for one problem:

As you can see,  this was not a cable car!  This is a ski lift!  We have discovered over time and experience that I, (Vicki), and my son, Jim, do not do well with heights!  We had a lovely death-gripping ski lift ride on Sentosa island last spring.  We weren't eager to repeat that feeling. Nothing went wrong.  Just heights!

Aaaaah!  Well, there was no way around it that we could see, so off we went!  The ride on the ski lift was no problem this time.  I think because this ski lift had a bar for your feet to rest upon.  That seemed to make all the difference to me.  That or maybe we were so excited to be at the Great Wall!  Here is our view from the top after disembarking the ski lift:

A word about the wall:

A symbol of China's historic detachment and sense of vulnerability, the Great Wall snakes through the countryside over deserts, hills, and plains for several thousand miles.....The Great Wall was created only after the unification of China under Qin Shi Huangdi (221 - 210 BC).  Despite impressive battlements, the wall ultimately proved ineffective; it was breached in the 13th century by the Mongols and then, in the 17th century, by the Manchu."

There are several areas of wall to visit from Beijing.  The most popular and therefore the most crowded and touristy, is the Great Wall at Badaling.  This is popular because it is the closest to Beijing and easiest to get to.   There is a Starbucks here, too. 

We were told to go to Mutianyu, and from my readings, this is what we would have chosen on our own as well.  Mutianyu is 90Km north of Beijing.  It is more hilly than Badaling and has less tourists.  The views are supposed to be better here.  This section has watch towers built in 1368 on top of the Wall that was built in 550 AD. 

The other section of wall we'd read about is Simitai.  Simitai is 68 Km NE of Beijing.  The wall is only partially restored here.  It is also steeper and more treacherous.  There is a 4 hour trek you can do from the Simitai Wall to Jingshanling that reportedly has great views.  If we didn't have kids with us, I would have chosen to do it this way!

As it was, we were at Mutianyu!  It seemed as if we had the entire wall to ourselves--and we soon found out why!  Remember the cable car???  Apparently there is a cable car up, but it is located quite a ways from where we went up on the ski lift.  We could see the ant-like people around the cable car let off point from our ski lift point.  Pretty cool!  All those ant people were going to head our direction to the luge down.  [ I was saving that part as a surprise in the blog for later, but you go up the wall on a lift and down on a luge.  Fun!]

Now we had a choice: left, toward the people  or right, toward ????   

We were told by a wizened guide to head right.  He told us we would come to the end of the area of restored wall and would see a sign telling us to turn back.  He said don't turn back!  Go ahead another 1000 feet or so for even more spectacular views.   We thanked him and headed right.

We were immediately faced with climbs.  Up, up, up, and down, down, up, up, and finally way up!  We stopped for our water.  All along the way we took pictures.  It was humbling to be there.  I never, in a million years, ever thought I would walk on the Great Wall.  After our last big climb, we went through the last high watch tower and found this: 

 Here is the sign telling you to turn back.  We cautiously continued forward.  I had to take a picture of what we were walking through.  Mind you, we were still ON the wall:

That was nature growing ON the wall.  Lots of nature!  And the nice stone bricks on the right of the picture eventually were crumbled and gone and it was, at times, a very scary slow walk.  You can imagine my voice instructing the kids to be careful of EVERY STEP.  At least this area was flat.  We couldn't have done this with any sort of climb.  It would have been too dangerous.

Was it worth it?  Well:

It was really, really special.  Loved feeling like we were the only people  venturing around on the wall.  We enjoyed every moment.

Here is just one of the climbs up to this forbidden area: 

Here is one photo we took along the way to that area.  I think this is one of my favorite photos of the China trip:

From the forbidden area, we took pictures of the wall we could see beyond Mutianyu.  You see, the Wall is on mountaintops.  It is actually in segments along the mountains.  So our area ended just beyond our forbidden area and continued on a far off mountain top.  Here is a crumbling watch tower on the neighboring mountain.  You can also see how nature grows right on the wall.  A small forest, I tell ya! :

We enjoyed the solitude and vistas for a while and headed back toward the luge for the ride down.  I think I could have spent days here.  As it was, we spent several hours already.

Here is a view of the wall we were heading back toward.  So neat.: 

 On our way back, our one goal was to get a decent enough family photo to use as a Christmas Card this year.  We had to wait an eternity to find a guy to take a picture, but I think it's not half bad:

We continued on from that picture, up and back to the ski lift/luge area.  We all had a ball speeding down the mountain:

At the bottom base camp, we stopped for lunch (Subway again!  Can you feel the excitement in my voice!) and a bit of bargaining/shopping.  John came away with a small resin gold colored dragon.  I got 3 small "terra cotta" soldiers I had been wanting.

 Leaving Mutianyu.  Now we were going into uncharted territory.  I had heard from a friend to book a hotel stay at the Commune By The Wall.  This is a remarkable hotel/houses area near Badaling where, according to what I had heard, you would have the Wall in your backyard.  Literally.   You really need to google this to see how cool it is.  In any event, we didn't think it would be any trouble to drive from Mutianyu to Badaling to the Commune.

Wish we'd looked into this a bit more.  Or at least prepared for it.

First, this entire day was the absolute highlight of our trip.  Even the kids think this despite what torture we put them through from here.  I'm not sure what we were thinking, but we definitely weren't smoking anything. 

The entire trip from Mutianyu to Badaling took us through the most beautiful countryside:

It was everything you really do want see and experience on a trip to China.  However, the entire trip was through mountains.  Very curvy up, curvy down.  After 2 hours of this,  John understandably felt sick.  We had to stop for a bit and then continue on.  Another freaking hour.

It was such a juxtaposition of feelings.  You loved the views, the countryside, the unadulterated China.  You hated the road, the van, and for the love of God, how much longer???  

Here is a typical scene we saw along the way.  It is harvest time in China.  No combines.  After cutting the corn by hand, it is transported this way:
 Eventually we made it to Badaling.  We were on our last nerve.  Sick, tired, exhausted.  The Commune looked nothing like the photos online.  Well maybe a little like it, but not anything like you'd expect after reading the site.  Then there was that bit about the wall.  We passed the Badaling Wall area.  And kept driving 15 more minutes to this place.  That's not a wall in my backyard, mister.  Then there was the little issue that Jim booked this reservation for the wrong week, so they had us checking in next week. 

 Okay, three strikes and we're out.

They had room for us, but we decided to bag it.  Our driver must have thought we were insane.  He didn't complain though and drove us the 1 1/2 hours back to the Ascott.  We gave the kids any dinner they wanted (Italian) and called it a night.

I wouldn't want to repeat the late afternoon we had, but this day was the pinnacle of our trip overall.  That's how great the Great Wall is.

Thoughts:

1)  October and May are supposed to be the best for weather, and I agree.  We had glorious weather!

2)  Skip Badaling.   If you have kids, do Mutianyu.   If you don't and you are healthy and in reasonable shape, I would consider the Wall at Simitai to Jingshanling.

3)  Always pack food and drinks.  Even if it's Subway sandwiches every day.

4)  Take a good camera and good shoes and enjoy.  Soak it all in. 

5)  I love my kids.  They are hardy travelers after the long ride we had today.

6)  There is a western potty here!  You have to look for it, though.  The first one they directed me to was not.

7)  My one recurring thought while walking and observing the wall was they must have been really scared of someone to go to all this trouble to build this wall on mountains.  Mountains are natural barriers all on their own.  It mind boggling to see a ginormous wall on top of that!

Up next:  Temple of Heaven!