The Great Wall of China

02/10/13

No prizes for guessing what this Blog is about! But let’s start at the very beginning (it’s a very good place to start). Rory and I have been in China for almost two months and unsurprisingly visiting the Great Wall has been at the top of our to-do list. Unfortunately the timing has never been quite right but we recently found out that the first week of October is a national holiday in China and as such we are officially off work! It seems that not even pushy parents can force their children to go to school on national holidays – hurray for not defying government policy!

As this is the only holiday we’ll have in China (they don’t celebrate Halloween or Christmas!!!!) we wanted to make the most of it so we booked a sneaky trip to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Warriors. Unfortunately the downside to national week is that pretty much everyone is off so literally every train, plane and automobile in Beijing was fully booked until the end of the week. This meant we had a few extra days in Beijing and rather than lazing around the apartment we decided to visit the Great Wall. Our Lonely Planet guide has an entire section devoted to the Great Wall and we did look in to some of the suggested hiking routes but in the end we decided that for what we wanted, it would be better to go with a tour. Naturally we left everything to the last minute so at 11.30pm on Tuesday night we booked two places for the next hike. Some might call this being unorganised but I like to think of it as being spontaneous.

In keeping with this new found spontaneity we got up at 6am, hopped on the subway, met our tour guide and began the two hour drive to Jiankou. Once we left Beijing, aka the biggest city in the world, the scenery vastly improved. We drove along narrow, winding roads that scaled mountains and ran past small roadside villages until we were stopped by what I can only imagine was some sort of Chinese official. We then discovered that this section of the Great Wall is closed to tourists and without a guide we wouldn’t have been able to see this section of “wild wall”. (If you want to see larger versions of the pictures you can click on one and it starts a sort of slide show with full screen pictures)

The forest

A glimpse through the trees!

A well known phrase in G.C.S.E Geography!

No stairs, no problem!

Once we’d stocked up on some water we left the van and made our way through the countryside and towards the first watch tower of the day. The hike began at 400m above sea-level and the next 600m were completely uphill. It probably doesn’t sound that impressive but it was quite a trek through a full on forest, in the heat, while carrying a big camera. By the time we reached the watch tower we had huffed and puffed a bit but it was totally worth it for the view. As I have already said, this part of the wall is completely wild, in the sense that it’s not open to tourist and it hasn’t been restored. This meant that the wall was relatively empty, despite it being the national holiday and that was exactly what I had hoped for. By paying a little bit more, £50 each, we managed to escape the crowds and see something that most people don’t get to experience.

We spent the next few hours walking along the wall, stopping at watch towers and taking lots of pictures! Eventually we came across a restored section of the wall which was still relatively empty. As we got closer to Mutianyu the number of tourists vastly increased and while it was busier than the Jiankou, it was really nice to see how the wall would have looked when it was first built.

The wall in the background

In general, the walk required effort but it was totally manageable. One girl left ten minutes in to the hike because it was too difficult but had she just put in a little bit of effort she would have had an amazing day, seeing the wall as it is today, totally wild and a little ruined but also seeing it completely restored to all its former glory! We spent around four hours hiking the wall and when we finished we went to a traditional Chinese restaurant – no picture menu here! Thankfully our guide had it sussed and ordered a selection of dishes and drinks which were all included in the tour price. Once we were fed and watered we headed back to Beijing, or at least we tried to – we were stuck in traffic for over three hours! By the time we arrived it was late and despite our better judgement we headed to Home Plate BBQ for brisket, pulled pork and root beer! Perhaps this was a bit greedy but it was the perfect end to an amazing day! Of all the brilliant places I’ve been, the Great Wall is definitely up there, it might even take the number one spot. Getting away from the city, on a perfectly sunny and clear day, to walk along one of man-kinds greatest creations that runs through a perfect countryside is something I won’t forget anytime soon (but if I do I have about a million pictures to remind me!)

Traditional lunch

Our restaurant/shed