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The day began as an early start, we had chosen to travel a bit further away from the usual tourist areas of the wall to do a 10.5 km hike along a slightly more remote section. Our 4 hour bus journey started at 6.30 in the morning so we were a bit bleary-eyed as we set out but by the time we arrived the 30 or so of us on the bus were ready to take on the wall.
As a brief history the first wall was unified in the reign of the first Emperor of the whole of China over 2000 years ago. It linked together earlier walls built by individual warlords and cities in the previous centuries. Most of the wall visible today, however, was from a huge effort by the Ming dynasty in the 14th and 15th centuries to resurrect the wall. On both occasions the wall failed as a defence, with Ghengis Khan breaching the original structure and then marauding Manchurian forces breaking through the second. It's main use was as a safe passage for people and goods, and now as a tourist attraction!
We headed off from an area called Jinshanling, it had a few hawkers at the outset but was thankfully nowhere near the menagerie we had feared. As we headed up the hill we got our first sight of the amazing structure, and also the first dawning of the task we'd set ourselves. 10.5 km doesn't sound like too much when you look at it on paper but of course the wall wasn't built on the flat, it tops a series of hills and dips into the valleys in between. This wasn't going to be a stroll in the park!
I could try and tell you how incredible the walk was but the combination of the stunning views, the feeling of walking a wall that in parts hadn't been restored for centuries and the mind boggling wonderment at just how it was built in the first place make it an impossible task. All I can say is that as we climbed the final section into Simitai, drenched in sweat, thighs burning and water bottles empty the undeniable realisation that this was an experience I would never forget washed over me. Every step had been worth it, it truly was the experience of a lifetime.
The aftermath of the walk was only going to be an anticlimax but just to let you know the walk finishes in a 'flying fox' zipline (rather more sedate than it sounds!) then a boat and a bus to a bland but filling buffet.
In the evening we headed out for a quick dinner at the street market and then a beer at a continental-style cafe before heading off for an early night. The only worry on a day like this was whether the rest of China could compare?!
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