May 15
We are up before the crack of dawn in order to make our 6:00
meeting in the lobby for our Great Wall adventure. I attempt to grab a coffee from the MacDonald’s,
but they are closed. The street is alive
with activity…sweepers cleaning, vendors frying bread, restaurants making
steamed dumplings…..it is an early morning kind of city. Upon my return to the hotel, we grab the
group and make our way to the metro and off to the bus station. We have a little trouble finding it, but a
nice woman helps us on our way. We
locate the area for our bus (#936), but we have missed the first one that was
scheduled to leave at 7:00. No worries,
there should be another one at 8:00. We
are told that we are waiting for the wrong bus and it is very confusing because
no one seems to speak English. Soon,
some western looking people are waiting in line for the bus next to us (#867)
and we inquire as to where they are going.
They assure us they are also going to Mutianyu and we give some thought
to switching lines. We continue in our
line and we meet a couple from Connecticut, the wife speaks Chinese and tells
us that the #936 is delayed in traffic, so we decide to switch lines to the
#867. It arrives around 9:00 and we all
take a leap of faith and get on board.
About 2 hours later, we are deposited at the bus terminal at the bottom
of the hill at the entrance to the Great Wall of China. We have about 3-4 hours to walk around before
the last bus leaves at 4:00. We quickly find that the Great Wall has become a
sort of Great Mall and the vendors are out in full force from the moment you
set foot off of the bus. We walk by most
of the stalls, but get a little distracted once we see the lovely fresh fruit
that is available. I inquire about some
bananas and apples and soon we are sampling the most delicious dried
cherries. I ask about the price and the
total comes to…..are you ready for this???......$30. Not the snack I had envisioned. We walk away, thoroughly disgusted with the
fruit seller as she calls after us….”how much you pay?”. We keep up the pace until we arrive at
another vendor who sells us the exact same fruit, dried cherries and all, for a
total sum of $5. We enjoy our breakfast
as we approach the climb up to the wall.
Wow…..don’t know why I hadn’t really thought how high we would be hiking
today. Up, Up, Up the steep stairs we
go, stopping every so often to see what we are in for up ahead. It is an arduous climb, but we are pleased
when we finally make it and are rewarded with an amazing view. The day is sunny and clear and there are
surprisingly few tourists that we are competing with for photo ops. We arrive at outpost #8 and walk toward the
cable car landing at outpost #14. The
section where we are was begun in 1404 by the emperor Yongle who wanted to
protect his nation from the invading forces from the north. This section was completed in 1420. We enjoy our leisurely walk toward our
destination, some of it is quite a challenge, but the exercise feels good on
this beautiful day. We are glad to be
joined by Chris who livens up the family dynamic and motivates to keep on
truckin. We get there and decide to
forgo the next section of the wall (#15-#23) and instead opt to go down the
mountain by the cable car. Once back on
the ground level, we decide to have a nice lunch to celebrate our hike and for
figuring out how to get here on our own, sans tour guide. We find a nice restaurant and have a great
meal with a few surprises (not the egg rolls we are used to) but we are all
very full at the conclusion of it. We
return to the parking lot to await the last bus of the day and enjoy lounging in
the sunshine for a while before the bus arrives. Once on board, we are all a bit pooped and nap
during the return trip to Beijing. When we arrive, we all hustle for the metro
and the comfort of our room before venturing out to dinner. We don’t get very far as we take the lazy
way out and go one floor up to the restaurant/bar for salads and other Western
food before falling into bed for a good, long sleep.
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