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Day Eleven
Mu Tain Yu - The Great Wall of China
Very very early start, awake at 6am & ready & waiting in reception at 6.50am for the start of the tour. We were in for a 2 & 1/2 hour bus journey to the Great Wall of China as we wanted to climb it & see the not so touristy parts. Also the place we where going was one of the oldest parts of the wall.
We jumped in a car with 2 Australians as we had to be taken to another hostel where the tour bus was leaving from. After a 30 minute wait everyone was on the bus & we set off. We thought we was on the move until we had to wait another 20 minutes at another hostel for more people. So far we weren't impressed by all this waiting around we just wanted to get there.
Whey hey, we finally set off & we hit the road. It was freezing on the bus so I asked if the heating could be turned on. Well, the driver blasted the heating & I fell asleep quite comfortably & happy, I was all warm & snuggly. Meanwhile whilst I was asleep everyone on the bus was down to the underwear because nobody was brave enough to tell the driver to turn the heating off, they all waited till I was awake to do the deed. Now wide awake & after a few near death experiences on the road mainly caused by our stupid mini bus driver, for example he tried to over take a massive coach on a blind bend with out even looking - there were quite a few screams along with some effing & blinding from us all, we were getting closer to the wall.
We passed a few villages that were quite poor looking & it seemed their only source of income was tourism from the wall. Passing deeper in to the mountains we could start to see the watch towers of the wall from a distance - the excitement set in. We finally arrived & got off the bus. Once again the weather was totally amazing & I don't know who's idea it was to wear thermals under our clothes (Andy!). After a toilet break & a quick look around at the stalls at the bottom of the mountain we grabbed our tickets & off we went. As we were stuck on a tour & had to be back for a certain time for lunch we were restricted with time so we decided to jump the cable cars going up to the wall as it would take at least 30 minutes of hard walking to actually get up on the wall & we wanted more time up there.
Oh my gosh, the cables cars were scary & I was wincing at every bump along the way & I kept proceeding to tell Andy that we were going to die! Off the cable cars & at the watch tower 6 what way along the wall shall we go?! Either way is going to be extremely hard. To the left was the easier option towards watch towers 7-24 which is the old part of the wall that has also been restored in places & most people do that one or to the right was the hard route to watch towers 6-1 which was the old old part of the wall.
The tough route it was! We set off & our aim was to get to watch tower 1. The wall looked amazing, it was huge & certainly going that way there wasn't many people willing to do the big old climb. The steps where uneven in height & size. The wall twisted & turned, this really was tough & the heat didn't make things any easier. After about 40 minutes of hardcore trekking we had passed all the other watch towers. The towers themselves were square & they varied inside with some having ladders so you could climb on top & others having more windows inside. Yeah we had reached watch tower 1 & did I need some water & a sit down. You could see the oldness at watch tower 1 & the difference in watch tower 6 which has been fully restored unlike the part we had trekked to. Walking around the watch tower there was an exit which led to another part of the wall - a no go zone! The sign said no public access! Sod that we went past the sign & carried on walking, this part of the wall was definitely older as it was crumbling & there wasn't really a path as such. The path was covered with brambles & trees but we still battled our way through. After about another 10 minute walk past the sign that we pretended not to understand we reached the end - the wall was that crumbly we couldn't possibly go any further. We had reached another watch tower but this was only half a one the other section had disintegrated.
The breath taking views from standing at the no go zone was something else. You could see for miles & the mountains where green & lush, the sky was amazingly clear. If it had not been sunny then we wouldn't have been able to see anything as clearly as we did. Once we had viewed the mountains we turned around only to see the Great Wall in all it's glory - gosh we had climbed a long way. The wall was twisted around the mountains for miles & miles, it looked like a dragon with it's spine all bent. Truly amazing & well worth the wait around the hostels. After catching our breath for 20 minutes & a few photos later, Andy in his Everton top & me with my Union Jack flag that has got my name on it we decided to head back & see how far we can get the other way towards watch tower 24. This was going to be tough.
Off we trotted back through the no entry sign & through the watch towers we had just passed. I didn't realise how far we had actually come. The route was up & down all the way so there was no escape from feeling the burn in your leg muscles - ouch! Back at tower 6 where we started from another rest was needed. We drank some water, had a banana for energy & we started to eat these lovely coconut biscuits we found in the supermarket the night before - before long the whole packet was gone. Time to tackle the other route.
Off we went towards tower 7 & the path was quite flat so we thought yeah this is easy, it's going to be a doddle. We flew past tower 8 & that's when things became harder. There wasn't very many steps, well not like the other way but the path wasn't so flat & it was steep! I think we preferred the steps instead. At each point along the way we would stop & look back & over the side of the wall. Each view was very different to the next & it was just crazy to think that we were actually walking on the Great Wall of China!
We walked further & further & it was getting steeper, I had to keep stopping to give my little legs a rest & catch my breath. Along the wall there were little window type holes & whilst catching our breath we peeped out & over only to see a little donkey. The donkey must have been used to get drinks & snacks on to the wall because right along the wall there were little vendors trying to sell us drinks. I kept looking at my watch & checking the time as we had to be back at 1pm to meet the group for lunch. The more & more towers we passed the harder it was becoming & time was running out. We managed to get to tower 18 before we had to head back. We were gutted because we knew if we just had a couple more hours we would have made it to the top of the other side & tower 24 - slightly disappointed at being stuck on the tour we headed back for tower 6.
Wow it was well easier coming back. I felt like I was skipping down the wall. On the way back we noticed that at the side of one part of the wall there were little steps that you could walk down & it took us to a little resting platform. There was a big rock with writing on about the Great Wall so after a few photos, again me with my flag & Andy with his Everton top we headed back towards base. About another 3 minutes in of heading back we saw one of the Irish lads from our bus so we strolled back down together to meet the rest of the group.
Time to get off the wall & back down the mountain, was it going to be more walking or cable cars - no! In fact we could toboggan our way down on this little tin slide. We thought whoop whoop we'll have a go at that. Trying to find the entrance to the toboggan we went down some little steps towards the cable cars. We thought that it was the right way until one of the workers on the cable cars was shouting "E.F.C stop!" we hadn't realised we were going the wrong way & the man couldn't stop us as he didn't know English properly so his best attempt at getting our attention was just to keep shouting "E.F.C (which was on Andy's top) stop right there!" Andy was joking with him by putting his hands in the air & freezing like he was going to be shot - it was quite funny.
We found the right entrance to the toboggan we where flying down, we thought they might have been rubbish at first but oh how we were so wrong. I reckon we easily picked the speed to about 30mph but it felt more. We were proper speeding to the point that the Chinese toboggan supervisors were screaming "slow down, slow down - bend!". Did we listen - as heck as like we listened - we went faster! I was screaming my head off whilst Andy was going that fast he caught the man in front & bumped right up his back end. I was killing myself laughing!! I swear we were down the mountain faster than you could say toboggan. It was fantastic - nearly as good as the wall but not quite!
With all our group congregated together our tour guide was ready to take us took to a restaurant which was about a 5 minute walk away but a toilet break for Andy was in order first. After about 5 minutes Andy came back in hysterics - he proceeded to tell the group that when he was in the toilet & as he walked in to the cubicle he opened the door only to see an old man with his head hanging out of the cubicle with his trousers by his ankles. He looked like he was squatting for China & laying cables for Beijing. The man was shouting something in chinese whilst keeping his poo strained face. Andy then proceed to shut the door whilst laughing & apologising to Mr Miagee. Everyone in the group was buzzing off Andy's toilet tale! Now at the restaurant our group was put on 2 round tables which had big lazy susan's in the middle. There was a massive plate of rice & then 9 other Chinese dishes that we could help ourselves to. The place we went to was not very clean looking & the table cloths were mega dirty but the food was delicious. All fed & back on the tour bus we headed back for Beijing. We wondered what kind of mad driving our mini bus driver had in for us on the way back. It was a good idea not to think about it & just doze off asleep. What you can't see in front of you can't scare you or so we thought!
With a big massive jerk we were awake! The driver was on a mad one again - nearly crashed & he slammed on his brakes so everyone on the bus was back to effing & blinding again. Maybe it is better if you can see what's coming then at least we have got a few split seconds for decisions! Mega scary bus journey & we were more than glad to get off. The bus driver dropped us & the Australian couple off over the road from our hostel & it would have to be right outside that nice bakery! The Oz couple where delighted as they had never seen the bakery here & they had been around for weeks. Becoming experts at this bakery & cake shop we showed them what to do before buying 2 cakes each & scarpering back to our hotel to demolish each one.
Back at the hostel door & with only 1/2 a cake left each we went inside & thanked the tour man Michael for his help in getting us to the wall & for his directions to the sights we wanted to see. It was decision time as we were meant to be checking out in the morning, do we move on to new findings or shall we stay the extra day & do Summer Palace? We decided an extra day was needed so we kept our room on. We couldn't stay in Beijing forever so we went to the computers in the cafe in the hostel & found our next destination. All we needed to do was secure a hostel room & get some train tickets. Hostel room was booked so it looked like we were off the see the Terracotta Warriors in a place called Xi'an which is in central China, all that was needed was train tickets but we thought we could deal with them the next day.
In our room & tired from a hard days climbing & walking we grabbed a shower & hit the bed. The last day tomorrow so we were going to spend all day in the Summer Palace.......
- comments
Mummy harrison fab, brilliant write up, whish I was there, so funny, love all the detail, thanks