Monday was GREAT WALL day for us...
We decided that it was best to go along with a tour group, as it's the most inexpensive way to get to the wall, if you want to go to the good parts. We chose to head for the Jin Shan Ling part of the Great Wall, because it is the furthest from Beijing, it has a lot of history, and there are barely any tourists hiking that area. The closest section of the wall to the city is called Ba Da Ling, and it's where almost every tourist goes. You can barely move along the wall because so many people are there, and that was not what we wanted to do. So we chose Jin Shan Ling, and it turned out to be better than we'd hoped for...
We woke up at 5am to shower and prep for the day. We needed to pack lunches to eat mid-day, and we needed a TON of water to take with us.
Our tour van picked us up at about 630am, and we drove around Beijing a bit to pick up the rest of our tour group. We were 15 in total, plus a driver and a tour guide (Judy). I fell asleep almost immediately once we were in the van, as did Paul:
After about 2 hours of driving, our driver got lost. We pulled over to ask where to go a few times, and then he seemed to be on the right path. Then we came to the worst traffic jam imaginable. A two-way, two-lane street turned into one lane, and the front cars of each side of traffic were head to head stuck in the middle of it all. The only way to move all of the cars was to have each line begin backing up and turning around, but cars just kept coming and they were piling on, so the jam seemed impossible to relieve. Our driver somehow managed to get us out (driving over a barrier and a few construction cones), and he opted to find his own path around the traffic. He searched and searched, and eventually drove into some kind of manufacturing pit. Apparently, he thought that if we drove through this area (where there were zero roads visible), we would end up on the correct street which would lead us to our destination. Ohh was that an adventure...
First, the driver told us that we should all get out, leave our stuff in the van, and start walking to the other side of the pit, because the ground was too uneven for the van to hold any passengers. Paul, Ibbi, and I looked at each other and said, "Okay, this is where he takes off with all of our stuff and leaves us here in the middle of nowhere to fend for ourselves." :-) ...
You can see here that I was a bit concerned about the situation:
Our driver wandered for a while, got out of the van a couple times, perused the area as best he could, and then decided that his only option was to shoot the van down a 15-foot declined slope that would put us in a position to leave the pit area. We all disagreed, and tried to explain to him that there was a better option, but he was set on getting his van down there. And, what happened?
I know you're in disbelief, but yes Paul, the van is stuck right there on the sloping land:
We all thought, "Ohh isn't this wonderful...we'll never get to the Great Wall!"...
We pushed, and we jumped on bumpers, and rocked that van as much as we could, but it was pivoting on the chassis and we couldn't get any tires to catch the ground!
While Judy went to find a bulldozer to help pull us out of this mess, Mr. Genius Driver Man decided that his best way out was to clear way the ground from beneath his van where the vehicle was sitting. That way, the tires would eventually sit on the ground, and we could drive away...
His plan actually ended up working, and while he destroyed his back bumper getting down the declined land, he did get down it! His fussing with our stuck van gave us ample time to explore the pit and find an easy way out that the driver couldn't mess up. Once he removed the van from it's seemingly cemented position, we got in and drove right out and up on to the road. THANK GOD!
Once out of the pit, the Great Wall was just an hour away. So, 4.5 hours after getting picked up in Beijing, we arrived at Jin Shan Ling, ready to hike. First we ate lunch, then we hiked.
Judy may have been the worst tour guide ever, as she turned out to know barely anything about the history of the wall, but it was alright, we found other ways to learn all about it. Paul, Ibbi, and I realized that Judy and the rest of the group would only hold us back from accomplishing as much hiking along the Wall as we could, so we left them and we headed up...
(Paul and I, once again, rocking the sweat towels...so handy)
About ten minutes into our hike up the mountain, we stumbled upon this climbing area, and we immediately became 5 year old boys...
That lasted 15 minutes or so, and then we got back to business...
Not far from there, we ran into an old man selling Chinese hats for incredible prices, so I had to get one ;-)
Our hike continued, until we made it to the actual wall, then we had to figure out a way up and into the top of the wall...
That's when the sweat just starting flowing like niagra falls...
Eventually, we made it up and physically onto the Wall, and the view was incredible (a bit foggy, but nonetheless awesome):
We ended up meeting three very nice Mongolian ladies, who were souvenir vendors. They had some good quality Chinese fans that they waved in our faces to cool us off...clearly they wanted something from us. After a while, we offered money to them, but they wouldn't take it. They said they just wanted us to buy a few souvenirs after we were done hiking. They kindly taught us all they knew about the Great Wall, and even showed us a short cut for the way down the mountain to meet back up with our tour group! In the end, we just purchased some small trinkets from them and off they went. They were much better guides than Judy was, and I don't think Paul would have made it as far as he did along the wall if they were not there to comfort him :-) These ladies were amazing - a couple were 70 years old and they were hiking like professionals. Paul fell behind to them quite often ;-)
This part of the Great Wall had a watch tower every 100 or 200 meters. Some parts of the wall were newly renovated, but nearly every hiking area was not. We were hiking on stones and bricks that were hundreds of years old. In many areas, the Wall was deteriorating a lot, but overall it was pretty well preserved and provided us with some great photographic moments...
We were amazed how so few people were visiting the Wall. We saw maybe 40 other visitors.
Here, you can see the immense amount of sweat from the heat of the day. Paul and I basically gave up on the sweat towels after a while:
I took my Albion College and Sigma Chi Fraternity flags with me on the trip, in hopes that I could get some nice pictures promoting two organizations that have given me many great opportunities to partake in some very cool adventures...
16 watch towers, and 3 hours of hiking later, we headed down the mountain to catch the van back to Beijing...
By the end of our journey, we were very tired but very happy with how the day went. Our visit to the Great Wall was incredible. We ended up really enjoying ourselves and we had a great time exploring the Jin Shan Ling Great Wall. A wonderful experience to say the least.
Ohh yea, we swung by a restaurant on the way back to our hostel and they had DOG MEAT on the menu...
...We didn't order it, too expensive and too weird!
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That basically wraps up our journey to Beijing. The next morning, Ibbi and I got up at 430am to head to Tienanmen Square for the National Flag Raising Ceremony. We were amazed at the number of people awake to see an event that early in the morning. For us, it wasn't incredibly spectacular. Some guards put the flag on the pole, they played the national anthem very loud, and they raised it up. I'd say the whole thing was about 5 minutes, I guess what can you expect with a flag raising!? Then we went back to the hostel for more sleep.
Tuesday, we just relaxed and met some other travelers at the hostel. It was nice to have a day of rest! Then we jumped on our Train for Shanghai at 10pm, and we arrived back home at 8am Wednesday morning.
Overall, a very fun and exciting trip to Beijing!
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PMM
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