Walk the Wall

After a really good trip to Xi'an and the terra cotta warriors, we had also planned to take our guests to Beijing to experience the Great Wall of China. We (JCS and I) also took this opportunity to get to a segment of the wall that we had not been to before. He arranged a tour guide to pick us up at the hotel and we were set to go to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China.


We took an unplanned, 24 hour detour to Jinan due to frightening thunderstorms. These storms waylaid nearly a hundred flights from Beijing and ours was one of the unlucky ones that was diverted to Jinan (I say unlucky, because rescheduling our flight and planning for our stay in the city (which has a table tennis motif running through it- you should have seen our room!!) seemed haphazard. A frustrating number of hours since we were only two hours outside of Beijing but could not get there- ( Check here for the write up on JCS's flight). But on the next day, we were more than ready to see it. All throughout our stay in the capital city, we had spectacular weather which included blue sky. On all of my previous visits, the sky had been covered in fog/smog and visibility was a bit low. This time, the Forbidden City and other sights virtually sparkled in our photographs.


And so it was for the next day as well. We had some of the nicest blue sky that I have seen in this country yet. We were picked up early by our tour guide and set off for the 1.5 hour ride to the wall. Getting to the actual wall required a short gondola ride. I can't seem to get away from them, so I got on, grabbed the sides of the capsule and kept my eyes on the horizon.

This segment of the wall was very smooth and very well maintained. It also was clearly popular with the tourists. We were given about one hour or so to walk around, so we decided to head off to the most elevated portion of the wall, probably in order to take the best vista shots. It takes more time than you think to walk it since there is so much stopping to take photos, so we did not make it very far. No matter since the object was to get to the wall.

Here are some of the photos that were taken that day with my camera. There are still more lodged in it- but I think that these ones may be the better ones. In the meantime, these give a small flavor of the wall and the environment around it. Note that I have included an wild apricot tree for you. I doubt that it is ancient since it would have been a liability to have a tree handy for climbing right near the wall. The fruit were small and a little green, and a little out of our reach, so I cannot tell you if this wild fruit is sweeter than the store bought ones (kind of like wild strawberries)

The rest of the day was spent going to the Ming Tombs, having lunch and returning back to Beijing. Our guide was kind enough to persuade the driver to pass by the Olympic stadiums- most notably the bird nest and the cube. I will post those at a later date.