Day 23

Trip Start Sep 14, 2006
1
23
169
Trip End ??? ??, 2007


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Saturday, October 7, 2006

We got up at 7am to take our tour to the Great Wall. Our minibus stopped at another hotel for more passengers and we were on our way. The part of the wall we were going to visit is about 1.5 hours North of Beijing - Mutianyu. When we arrived I was a bit disappointed at how built up for tourism this little place was. However, our guide book said this spot wasn't crowdy like Badaling is and thankfully that was accurate. There was a cable car system taking people to the top, and the more adventurous could take a toboggan ride down. The toboggan was interesting in that you could buy the optional extra of "insurance" for your descent! It was a misty day which was annoying because you couldn't clearly see some of the great scenery around the wall. That said, you could see the wall ok and for a few hundred metres in all directions.
The wall was very impressive in scale and was something I'd been looking forward to visiting as soon as China made it's way on to my travel itinerary 1 Walking to the Wall
1 Walking to the Wall
 . We got some good photos and ate packed lunches after walking for an hour or so on the wall.
I hadn't expected so many steps! It takes about 40 minutes to walk up steps to the wall itself, then as you walk along the wall every pace is either a step up or a step down.
Back at the bottom Steve told me how he'd knocked down a lady selling books of postcards from 35 yuan to 15 yuan (about a pound). Feeling competitive I took a 5 yuan note over to the seller to see if I could get a better deal. She tried to get me to pay more but still looked happy to have sold another book of cards, this time for about 30p! Dinner that night was supermarket-bought noodles and we got an early night after a good day of walking.
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life
life on Jan 30, 2009 at 09:51PM

Great wall
It's reality that Great wall most tourist oriented place.
We used Simatai. We found bus by myself and then form Myun took a taxi. Hard chatting about price.
And finally we spent 4 hours in silent area of Great Wall.
See this plac in the same time (2006) - http://my.opera.com/only_life/albums/show.dml?id=33522

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