Beijing – The Great Wall

Today was the day to see the Great Wall, one of the Must Do’s for anyone visiting Beijing. There are several areas of the wall that can be visited from Beijing, the part we went to today is called the  Mutianyu. It seems the most popular spot with the hostel crowd.

I, having the wisdom of Solomon, decided that the cable car ride up to the wall was more energy efficient that climbing the 7 million steps required just to reach the wall.

 

 

 

All very impressive when up there, I was told it was Mongolia on the other side, but I think that may have been historical. The modern Mongolian border is hundreds of k’s away.

After having a wander around along the wall for a while, and buying a new hat, I caught to cable car back down again, rather than take a toboggan ride.

 

 

This turned out to be a smart move as  shortly after, the heavens broke and dumped down buckets of rain.

 

 

 Others got stuck up at the wall, getting drenched as they closed the cable car down for a few hours.

 

Meanwhile I found a nice lady that made me coffee and pancakes out of the rain, where I waited a few hours for the others to return and then we had a light lunch and home on the bus for about 90min.

Its now about 4.30 and it is still raining, although lightly now. The little street the hostel is on is full of passing people on bikes, foot and often little electric bikes bikes and scooters. I haven’t mentioned these before but they are everywhere in China -part of the greening of China I suppose. The worst aspect of them is they are virtually silent and sneak up behind you very easily. You have to be careful not make any sudden direction changes or you are likely to be run over.

Off to the Acrobat Show tonight, should be fun.