Great Wall of China

Our trip to the Great Wall of China began with an early morning and a 140km drive out of Beijing into the countryside. It was still early when we arrived at the starting point of our walk at Jinshanling and very cold in the shadow of the mountain that the part of the great wall we were visiting sat on. We rugged up to about 2 layers bottom and 4 top with all the skiing kit we had managed to carry around SE Asia.

After a short walk we saw the wall stretching out into the distance high above us and wandering off as far as the eye could see. It was a clear sunny, but cold, day and it was amazing seeing this huge structure snaking up and down the mountains. We were quickly joined by a group of locals trying to sell a whole bunch of souvenirs. They followed us for about a kilometre, or about 4 turrets, until they eventually got the idea that no matter how far they followed us we weren’t that interested in their ‘I’ve visited the Great Wall’ t-shirts. (We did better than some, who said that they were followed over half of the walk!). Overall we were surprised by how empty this part of the wall was, generally we were the only people there, and the only other non-locals we saw were on our 10 man bus – really cool!

The walk took as a few hours and went on for about 10km before finishing at a suspension bridge across a small thermal pool/river. We left the wall here, at Simatai, but it continued up the hill and along a huge ridge into the distance. The wall was really impressive, parts of what we saw were restored and others left in their original condition. It really was an amazing sight and has left us feeling ready to go again after becoming a bit ‘templed-out’.

We definitely reckon that the wall deserves its title of being Great

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