Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Mon 30 Oct
We left Beijing by bus at 7.30am, then travelled for three hours to a remote part of the Great Wall. There are five sections of the wall that are open to the public, the part that we visited is the least visited. We were guided by a farmer along a stretch of about 5-6 miles of unrestored wall. The scenery was spectacular and the wall was ..... great!! It stretches for as far as you can see. We saw no other people during the walk so it was great to have the wall to ourselves. Parts were crumbling away - we had to scramble up some parts and slide down others where it was just a dust track. At the end of the walk we arrived at a village called Jinshanling where we stayed that night.
Tues 31 Oct
We got up at 4.45am for a sunrise walk on the wall. It was absolutely freezing despite thermals, fleeces, gloves and hats. We only walked for about half an hour then waited for the sun to rise then ran back down again in search of some heat! Later on we got the bus back to Beijing then the overnight train to Xian. During the wait at the train station the locals again found us fascinating, we found ourselves surrounded by a group of chinese men and a little boy who tried to make friends with Ed.... who of course was having none of it! The trains are luxurious compared to the indian ones - they even have hot water, bins and clean toilets (still squat ones though). Ed managed to get some sleep so it appears that it is only indian overnight trains that he is allergic to.
- comments