The Great Wall – 8/14/10

On Saturday morning we jumped in a van and headed (slowly) out of the city towards the Great Wall.  Even though I’d been in town 5 days, I hadn’t had a chance to venture out much so was really excited to hit the road!  Beijing is a sprawling city and while there are some major roads, our driver seemed to prefer local roads.  As we made our way through the city, I continued to be amazed at the sheer quantity of people in the city.  Every single block sees people walking, biking or using their scooters to get around.  Many of them are hauling food, drinks or other things…everyone seems to be selling something.

It took us about 2.5 hours to make it to the Mutianyu section of the wall.  The first half of the ride was in largely urban areas.  As we headed north we noted lots of farms and even more construction of buildings between those farms.  There is construction seemingly everywhere!  It certainly has to do with population growth but also that construction quality doesn’t seem to be very high so they are constantly rebuilding.

The Great Wall is up on the top of a mountain as it was used to help defend the greater Beijing metro from invaders.  As a result of being high up, a car can only get your fairly close.  There is a small village at the base of the mountain where locals try to get you to buy anything from bottled water, soda and beer to t-shirts, match boxes, etc.  They shout “hello, hello!” in hopes to getting you to potentially buy something.  All the sellers are VERY aggressive!

Once you make your way through all the stalls you buy a ticket to take a ski lift up the mountain to the Great Wall…actually, they offer two options, I ski lift which takes you to one particular section of the wall or a Gondola which takes you to another section.  We went with the ski lift and it was a pleasant ride.  We spent about an hour climbing the wall.  It’s intensely steep in areas and tiny steps make it quite a tough walk…but it’s worth it!  The views are amazing and it’s incredible to think about how it was built by over a million people and w/o assist of any advance machinery.  We spent about 90 minutes climbing around on the wall.  It was a blast.

As much fun as the Wall itself was, the way down may be the best part.  I call it Luge, they call it Toboggan!  Whatever you call it, it's a damn good time.  I took my Flip down with me and despite getting yelled at by one of the check point guards, it's a solid 4 minutes of entertainment.  Please excuse the action shot of my calf...I was trying to keep the camera down until I got away from the guard.  I hope you enjoy! 

Next post will be about our post-Great Wall meal and visit to the Summer Palace.