May 29, Beijing: The Great Wall

Again, today's post will be much more about the pictures, which don't even do the trip justice. We hiked a section of the wall called Mutianyu, as it was significantly less touristy than many other parts.

To get there, we hired a car, well, two cars, as we invited some of the people we've met at the hostel to come along. Our group was 7; Chris, Alex, 2 Danes (Søren and Earnest), 1 Spaniard (Lorenzo), a British kid named Ollie, and myself. There was a high probability of death just getting there, as this was our car:



We were driven through the Chinese countryside, filled with run-down stone buildings, military training camps, and farmland. It was truly a 3rd world country out there; there was some power running out in the country, but not much, and it didn't look as if running water was plentiful.

We arrived to the base to a crowd of locals hawking everything from climbing sticks to camreras at highly, highly inflated prices (more on that later - I think I'm going to write an entire post on bargaining here). It was about an hour, straight up, to get to the wall. From there, the view was of the wall and the wall and the wall, running for miles in every direction, up and down mountains - truly an incredible sight:

We walked along the wall and took a few photos. Here's one of the group:
Also, a photo of Alex and I:


At the highest point of our section of the wall, we each opened a beer we had lugged to the top, and cracked open a cold one on top of the Great Wall:



We took the car back to the hostel, and rested for a bit. Chris took Alex and I to a German restaurant near the embassies, across from the Vietnamese embassy. The food was authentic, and delicious. I took a picture, but its still on my camera, which is packed at the moment, so I'll update this post with the photo later.

Update - here's the picture of the delicious meal:



After dinner, we headed to alfa - the bar we had been to the previous night, and met up with both Jenny and Gao, Chris' teacher. We stayed there for awhile and then headed home - what a great day! Here's one of the photos:


Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing - we're going to see the Forbidden City where the emperor once lived, and then head out on an overnight train to Shanghai. Many thanks to our new Beijing friends, especially the people here at the Red Lantern Hostel and Jenny, who I know is reading the blog now!

My next post will likely be in two days from Shanghai, as our overnight train will prevent a post. In Mr. Murphy's words, happy trails!

Mike