The Great Wall Great Trek

Trip Start Sep 01, 2007
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Trip End Oct 22, 2007


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Saturday, September 15, 2007

Being the "seasoned travellers" we are we set off well equipped with walking poles and sustenance for what we were expecting to do, trek the approximately 10 or 11 km along the wall from Jinshanling to Simitai which would take us about 4 hours to walk.
 
We knew that there would be stairs all along the wall but did not realise how hard it would be for  me with my fairly useless level of depth perception. In the space of about the first kilometre I must have given our guide heart failure at least 20 times! So you can imagine how she felt when we got to the part of the wall where there had been no restoration and the stairs were more like crumbling stones with holes to step into.
 
At this point we decided I should swap my white cane for proper hiking poles. The main result of doing this was me having the confidence and bravado (stupidity) to go rushing along this craggy part of the wall and give our guide as well as Annie heart failure.
 
We decided that it was less risky to sit on some rocks for a while and enjoy the views with surprisingly few people spoiling the experience. We ate some of our snacks while talking about the wall, the soldiers and the builders of the wall while snapping off yet more photos of the wall. It was a truly amazing experience to be sitting on The Great Wall of China!
 
We walked back down part of the way and then took the cable car ride down. It was a really slow ride and gave us more time to Ooh and Aah at the wall and the beautiful views and scenery.
 
Then it was back to the hotel, about two and a half hours drive, to pack and go for a bite to eat. We went for a walk along the road from our hotel and found a local restaurant where, although we were the only Westerners in the restaurant, they had an English version of their menu with credit given at the bottom of each page of the name of the translator. We had the most delicious stir fry for supper and I had a giant beer for a mere RMB 2.5, approximately 18 UK pence / 38 US cents! Mind you, the whole meal came to just RMB47 / £3.20 / $5.50, a bargain and our best Beijing restaurant meal of our visit!
 
Tomorrow morning we are flying off to Chonqing where we will start our Yangtze River cruise.
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