The Great Wall

Blue skies, warm weather…perfect for a little sightseeing! My new German friend invited me to join her and a local acquaintance to the Great Wall and Ming Tombs in north-eastern Beijing.

I left the dorm before 8am to meet them at Steffi's place. It was my first go at catching the train and subway on my own. It wasn't so bad. It's actually a little quicker than taking a taxi because of the heavy road traffic, and several times cheaper. I think I feel less vulnerable when on the train with lots of people than in a taxi on my own.

Anyway, Mr. Gao, Steffi's acquaintance, ended up just chauffeuring us around. It was about a 2-hour drive from Steffi's to the BADALING section of the Great Wall. I was so sleepy that I was falling asleep in the car, even on the way there. The car park at the Great Wall was full, so Mr. Gao just waited for us in the car while we climbed the Wall. It was quite a climb! Lots of ups and downs, very steep in places, and where there were steps they were mostly uneven. It was unbelievable how crowded it was, and they were mostly Chinese tourists. Nevertheless, we made it up to the highest point of the north section of the Wall. I didn't think the landscape was particularly beautiful, but it was a worthwhile cultural/historical learning experience. There were people trying to sell souvenirs, etc. the whole way up. There were these funny vase-like paper(?) things and when the two ends are compressed, it turns into a hat! You could even get a certificate to say that you climbed the Great Wall for 25 RMB. Unfortunately, I didn't recharge my camera battery yesterday and it died on me before we reached the peak of the Great Wall so I wasn't able to take many photos. >_< see the hat?



As we didn't want to make Mr. Gao wait for us any longer than necessary, we decided to take the sliding cars down to the bottom...only to be told by the illegal taxi drivers that it we were at the wrong car park. We called for Roger to come, but apparently he couldn't enter that section. After at least half an hour of continuous hassling, we accepted a ride and met up with Mr. Gao.

After a quick lunch stop (stir fried potato, raw veggies with some sauce, soupy corn-carrot-cucumber dish and flat corn bread with veggie filling), we made our way to the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs admission fee was 20 RMB more expensive than the Great Wall, but not much more to see. We entered one excavated tomb, also called the underground palace. There were also 3 small exhibition rooms displaying artifacts from the tomb, which were quite interesting. There were displays of woven dress fabric that were really pretty.

>> Click here for more Great Wall photos