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Ok, since my last blog entry we were just about to set off on a trek of the Great Wall. I didn't really enjoy Beijing up until the night before the walk. Mostly because we hadn't been staying in a particulary nice area. But it was beginning to grow on me. We were staying in an authentic part of town, we were mixing with the locals and I was loving it. We had done a lot of walking in Beijing, mainly because no one speaks any english and the cab drivers are absolutley mental. We did however opt to take a couple of cabs at certain points as it was too hot to walk.
The morning of the walk we awoke at 6:20 a.m. and headed down to the meeting area. We had foolishly opted for the 10km trek something that we would probably live to regret. It was hot today. REALLY HOT! We boarded the bus for a 3.5 hr jouney off to the base of what can only really be described as a mountain. To get to the wall we had to climb this, and that wasn't even included in the 10km.
We were joined on the walk by another couple of lads, one called Jeff from the UK and another called Danny from the USA. It was a good crack and we have made some good friends. The wall itself was breath taking. I'm not too sure that photos will really give it any justiuce whatsoever. We were walking from a place called Jin Sam Tae (not too sure on the spelling to Sim Tae).The part of the wall that we set off from was pretty well renevated (last 30 years) but there were parts of it that were crumbling away. Health and safety would have had a field day. Basically we were on a wall that had no edges in places, was vertical in places and had loose stones that could make you lose your footing at any point whilst having a 100ft drop into the wilderness of China on one side and Mongolia on the other. Intense to say the least.Half way through the walk was probably my lowest point. I was fed up of the locals trying to sell me postcards and books of the wall and the standard phrase to everyone was either Bu Shi (no) or Maijo (NO!!! just a bit more sterner than Bu Shi). I suppose they have to make a living but they weren't gonna make any money out of me. Partly because I had none to offer!
10km, 35 watch towers and 1 packet of postcards later (yes I caved in in the end) we had done the walk. We settled down at the end of the wall section and had a beer with our new found travel friends. We were also joined by a couple of teachers who were travelling round China.Typical teachers, they could see we were pretty low and tired so they offered out some food to us, mind you I'm not too sure you can call it food as it was vacuum packed chickens legs and chicken sticks, needless to say food is food and I was famished! They had just come back from a trip from Chengdu which is a Western Province (I think). They had taken a bus overnight around some mountains. Apparently they had to take out life insurance before they were allowed on the bus. It only cost 5RMB so I am not too sure what it would have covered them for…oh well they got to Beijing.That night we recovered at the hostel (with my new found love for Sweet and Sour Pork) and had a couple of beers. That night we sat out on the steps of the hostel drinking beer for 2.5RMB…about 11p for a litre!! RESULT! It was a quality evening, really chilled out and relaxed. Everyone who was sitting out was really cool, people from Israel, USA, Germany, UK you name it they were there.I am really liking this travelling lark now! Meeting random people and just generally chilling out! I'm starting to learn some Chinese now, nothing special just the stuff like thankyou, hello, bye, egg fried rice (which appears to be my staple diet)Off to Xian next...a 12 hour overnight train journey
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