Day two in Beijing!
Today was the day of the wall!
We got up early and after speaking to a spanish guy called George in the hostel yesterday (who told us about the Icy place he'd tried to go to, made difficult as it had snowed the previous week, and then showed us various photos of his unsuccessful trek) we knew which area we were headed for. One of the farthest points you can go, but in its original form, if not a bit if a scramble in places. Sold!

We caught the bus (I forget which number) from by the Beijing bus station to a town about an hours drive away. Once there we got into various scrambles with guys who wanted to take us out. Of course it was a complete contrast of prices. Where the book said it would cost ¥10 each to get there, everyone wanted ¥150 each way. After much extreme haggling we settled on ¥180 for both of us, return journey, and the guy had to wait three hours for us while we went for our walk.

All that agreed we got into his van and began the 90ish minute journey out to our preferred section of the wall.

Arriving there, as we drive in the van, we could see what we thought was the wall winding over the hills in the distance, but it looked almost like a dirt track. It wasn't until we for much closer that it's scope came into view. The road that we were on split the wall in two, and we could see its 7m high, 7m thick scale very well by now.

To the left was impassable, to e right was out chosen path. We began to walk alongside it, unsure of where we were going, but following a path by a reservoir. We came to a guy who charged us ¥2 to pass. So far so good.

We began the climb up to the wall, already pretty intense, and realized our path was coming to a dead end after 20mins of climbing. We saw some western looking people below us so went down to ask them if they knew where they were going. They led us up a path and I think they weren't too sure either, but eventually we saw a ladder propped precariously against one of the battlements of the wall and weighed down by a few stones. It was about 15 ft high and we were unsure, but had to get up there, so we tentatively climbed up and scrambled through the small gap.

We were on the wall! The great wall of flipping china! In a battlement that was placed there hundreds, maybe thousands of years before! Cool! We began the walk through the battlement and out into the wall. What faced me, which I didn't expect were a series of very steep hills on the wall combined with massive crumbling series of steps. We moved slowly to the next battlement.

What's weird about the wall, apart from the fact that you're walking on it in relative peace apart from a few friendly families or groups of kids (who of course insist on having their photo taken with you) is that everytime you reach a battlement, exhausted from the scramble and climb, you see the view and the next battlement and want to go there. We did this several times until we reached one where you could see the wall scale the next mountain, then wind its way down to its base and up to the next mountain. Just massive. We decided that in the time we had, this was the best view we were going to get. I toyed with the idea of climbing the precarious looking and cobbled together from branches of a tree, ladder up to the battlement roof, but thought this would be a bad place to break my neck, and instead settled down with Jen for some water and to admire the astonishing view.

Satisfied, we began our return journey, Jenny hilariously clinging to the wall and fairy stepping her way down the very steep hills. We reached the ladder and saw the kids who wanted their photo taken with us scrambling down the other side on a path. We followed and paid a ¥2 to an old lady to get past and a further ¥5 to a smug lady to cross her bridge (still, better than the ladder) and ended up at this restaurant for a drink! They spoke no English, but we managed to get a drink before meeting the man for our trip back.

Three hours later we were back in Beijing and shattered. We got food from a local restaurant around the corner, and then returned where I drunk three local draft beers and flicked through a lonely planet guides Philippines section, whilst Jenny sat tapping at the computer. It had been an exhausting day, and we retired to bed pleased with our accomplishments and what we had seen!