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Today we'd booked a tour to go to the Great Wall of China, so the tour coach picked us up from the hostel at 8.30 and drove for around 90 minutes until it got to the wall. We'd chosen to visit a stretch of the wall called Mutiyanu which is a little further out but it is usually less touristy and not as repaired as more popular parts such as Badaling. We paid an extra 80 RMB (£8) for tickets to get a cable car up to the wall and for a toboggan ride down!
The walk was amazing and we couldn't have picked a better day as it wasn't that cold and was really bright and sunny. There weren't that many people around either so it definitely pays to go to the wall in the winter months :) We walked up a hilly stretch of the wall and visited around 16 watch towers and reached the furthest tower we were allowed to which had a Chinese flag up on it. I think the wall may be open even further along in the summer months, but the area we walked to was definitely more than enough!!
PHOTOS
So after a 3 hour hike we arrived back to the starting point and got to toboggan our way back to the bottom! SO much fun!!!
PHOTOS
At the bottom there was a stretch of street markets/shops including one selling dried fruit and nuts. She kept offering us bits to try and Gill and Laura both bought some but I think she got annoyed at me cos I ate a whole bunch of her testers and then walked off ha!
Included in our tour was lunch and we went to a restaurant which seated 9 of us around a table and put lots of little dishes in the middle on a turn table and you just turn it and help yourself. Luckily there were a few vegetable dishes so I was fine. The other 6 people at the table were from Swansea and had actually heard of the Wirral which was nice, and they were in china doing TEFL.
Later that night myself, Gill, Laura and Anne met up with the comedian (James) and his friend Amelia to go get dinner and we went to a restaurant to get traditional duck. I say 'we' meaning them, and I had VERY spicy bean dish and some of the pancakes without the duck. The Chinese-English translations in the menu were hilarious, including dishes called "Old kitchen cabbage" and "Pimple soup" hahah yummmm...
We then went for a few drinks on 'Bar street' (can't remember where we went) and got back about 3 or so as the others had to be up early.
- comments
Mum Dear Sarah, Sounds like you had a wonderful time and made some new friends. Waht did you toboggan on? Was there snow? Mum xxx
saaaags It was so much fun! It was like on a metal track and you just zoomed down it! Nope no snow, at one point was just in tshirt cos was hot from walking! No wind and blue sky :) x
steph umm...pimple soup.
kendra please tell me one of you guys ordered the pimple soup.
Aunty Jane I love the sound of the toboggan all the way round !!!i can just picture you doing that bless you ! Pimple soup do you get to squeeze that through your teeth ? Get it ? Pimple ! I have sent your blog link to my friend Chris in Newcastle so hope you don't mind x
Alma The wall sounded fantastic but I don't know about the food! Did you try the kitchen cabbage? I quite like the sound of pimple soup, wonder what was in it? !!
Gill Well, Sarah you certainly are sampling the local culinary delights - gag tea, pimple soup etc - just wondering if your dad's love of all things experimental in the kitchen prepared you in any way for this exotic fayre?! Glad you're having fun. PS these sums to demonstrate our authenticity on here seem to be getting harder - at this rate we'll be on algebra by week 2 - yikes!