The Great Wall

On the morning of August 22nd, we went as a group to Mutianyu to visit the Great Wall of China.  Mutianyu is a section of the Great Wall ~ 43 miles north of Beijing.  It's one of the best preserved sections.  Part of this wall was built mid-6th century but the bulk of it was built  and restored during the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644).  This section is the largest construction scale and the best quality.  The wall is about 24 feet high here and ~ 15 feet wide at the top.  The wall was constructed to keep the northern nomads out of Beijing.  Over 95% of Mutianyu is covered by orchards and trees.

To get up to the wall, you walk through a little village with villagers trying to sell you everything they have: food, drinks, handycrafts, clothes, etc.  The walk up to the wall was something none of us will ever forget.  We walked hundreds and hundreds of stairs just to get to the top (and I had sandals on for some stupid reason).  I've never walked that many stairs at one time in my life, not even close.  It was so hot and all of us were so tired by the time we got to the top.  Hope you can get a feel for the sheer # of stairs that we climbed by the pics.  I climbed up some Mayan temples during the Spring but now that seemed like nothing.

Once on top, the views are stunning and it's just astonishing how they built this thing.  Just to bring the materials needed this high is amazing.  Some parts of the wall can be difficult to traverse with high/steep steps and inclines.  It was nice to go into the watchtowers to get some quick shade.  We were at the top for a few hours and needed to get to the bottom for a group lunch.  Instead of walking back down, a few of us took a toboggan slide down for 50 kuai apiece.  It was not worth the $ but how many times can you take an alpine slide down the mountain at the Great Wall?  There was a Chinese person in front of my slide who was just going really slow and this created a bottleneck.  Oh well.

We had lunch at a little place in the village and I sat at a vegetarian table that the restaurant had set up.  There were about 8 of us at this table.  They just came out with plate after plate of vegetarian food.  Food is usually served family style in China.  Rarely do you order single meals unless you're at a western restaurant or something.  Plates of food is usually served on a lazy susan in China so sharing is made easier.  You just swing the susan around to sample the dishes and fill up your bowl or plate via your chopsticks.  This place brought out rice, bok choy, tofu, corn, steamed buns, potato slices, Sichuan style green beans, eggplant, & cucumbers that I can recall.  It was fabulous.  We were all commenting on how good this place was.  Was probably the best meal I had while in the Beijing area.  We then hopped on the buses and headed back to the hotel.  I showered up and then  went out with some friends for dinner and drinks that night.  For this would be our last night in Beijing...