The Great Wall

You couldn't really come to China without seeing the Great Wall. Somewhat to my surprise I managed to persuade Thibault not to do the easy bit of the wall to reach by train, but to go on a tour to the more scenic part at Mutianyu. We booked through the hotel, but they didn't do tours so what we got was a very comfortable taxi (driven as is normal, by a non-English speaking driver) for what seemed at the time a rather expensive 1000 yuan, about a hundred pounds. We felt this was an overly expensive outcome but shrugged our shoulders.

In fact I wouldn't begrudge a penny of it. This was possibly the best experience of the holiday. In the first place this is a restored part of the wall, about 3kms long. But while very well set up for tourists, it was not at all crowded. And it was very nice for the two of us just to do our own thing at our own pace. So we started the journey by getting the cable-car up. This was more difficult than one might have anticipated as having bought our cable-car tickets we were refused entry as we hadn't bought an entrance ticket to the Great Wall, which was to be purchased at a separate kiosk round the corner which our driver didn't realise.

With a full set of tickets we went up by the open chairlift, a fun experience but perhaps not one for those scared of heights.

Now I had picked this section of the wall because it was supposed to be the most scenic, as well as less crowded. What I hadn't quite connected was that the scenic element was the result of it snaking up and down the high hills here. And that meant a lot of climbing up and down. We decided to go to the right end first, maybe a about a third or less of the wall. Bear in mind too that it was 30C and we were carrying backpacks (including two litres of water each) and umbrellas (with a forecast for rain). Let me just say that overall I think this was the most serious work-out I had done since circuit-training in the fourth form at school. Thibault was amazingly patient with me as I wheezed my way up to the end of the accessible part to the right. It's not just that the wall has steep climbs, but also that the steps are of varying size, from about the depth of a single brick to ones that came up to my knees. Even Thibault who is a fit young man found it fairly hard going. We quickly turned into puddles of sweat.

Having got to one end, I rather doubted my ability to backtrack and do all the rest of the stretch climbing back high into the hillside in the distance. But I did, in part I guess through having got into some rhythm and in part from having Thibault to chat with, and with a fair few water breaks. I don't normally drink very much during a day, but those two-litre bottles of water went down in their entirety. But in the end it was a fun activity to do, and the scenery is just unforgettable. See for yourself.

The intrepid duo. You can see why Thibault was better fitted to this undertaking can't you?

See what I mean by it being a steep climb!

Did I mention it was steep?

Best I could do with shooting this colourful butterfly. Very hard creatures to photograph

A well deserved rest break. Surprised I am still smiling.

Thibault in better shape but the sweat stains on his t-shirt don't lie. This was hot work.

Another shot of that butterfly, now nestled on my trainers

Yeah, impressive isn't it? Quite magnificent

As you can see we weren't the only tourists here, but not exactly crowded. And unlike every other place we visited, the wall had mainly western tourists.

Thibault looking pioneering

Just to show the wall was a serious fortified  structure.

 After all that trekking we came down the fun way - not the cable-car but on the toboggan track. Longest slide I have ever been on.

All too much excitement for one day for some youngsters...

Thank goodness for the air-conditioned taxi on the way back. We felt better for "drying off" after over 3 hours of trekking up and down the wall. We got back to the hotel late afternoon - traffic back wasn't as bad as getting out of Beijing in the morning. Now in addition to having expended more calories than I normally do in a month, we hadn't actually had breakfast and missed out on lunch too, so were ravenous and headed out for an early dinner. So we returned to the restaurant we had found the night before confident that we were so early they couldn't have run out of duck. We were not disappointed. The most delicious Peking Duck we had ever tasted. And our meal for two, including an emergency order of dumplings to keep us going while the duck was prepared and some very well deserved beers, came to under £20. Best meal probably of our entire visit to China.