An early start today as it was a couple of hours drive to the section of the Great Wall that we wanted to visit (we chose an area further away, so hopefully less busy and commercial). The selection for breakfast was different to yesterday, which was good. We tried lotus.
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| The hotel dining room |
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| Pastries, toast, tea, no coffee and hot orange juice! |
When we went to the lobby, Mr Pan was already there, but Ami was actually a little late. The two hours or so drive was quite pleasant. We stopped about 2 hours in for a toilet break when I got to use my first squat loo. You also usually have to supply your own toilet paper. It was actually no-where near as bad as I had imagined.
We arrived at the base of the wall, where a lot of construction was going on. They are building a replica water village and also repairing a lot of the original buildings.
Click to play the Slideshow
A shuttle bus took us up to where a chair lift started, but we walked up, along with quite a few others. I actually would not have believed last Sunday that I would be walking on the Great Wall of China! I went to half-way between the fifth tower and sixth tower, where one end of the walking track from the cable car came up. Darryl went on further to past the eighth tower. The steps were interesting, at all different widths and heights, so you couldn't get into a stride. The views of the continuing part of the wall were just spectacular. It was just a shame that there was so much pollution as the photos probably won't come out very clearly.
The whole walk took us two hours. Back at the base, the shuttle took us back to the village (it was more than punctual, supposed to leave at 12:30, but Ami had warned us to be there at 12:20, and the bus left at 12:17), where we went to a restaurant for lunch. We had a very nice green vegetable, along with chicken and mushrooms, and pork and potatoes. Once again too much food, as Mr Dung did not join us, and Ami only eats a very small amount.
I had a nap on the 2 hours return trip to Beijing. Back in the city we went to look at the Olympic stadium and the Water Cube.
It was a very hot long walk, and we could taste the pollution. Coming back to the car was a bit cooler as we went along the artificial Dragon Lake where at least a bit of breeze cooled us. For dinner we went to a restaurant to have Peking Duck, which was very delicious, but again way too much food.
We required a few groceries so headed back to Tesco, to buy them and more water.
The whole walk took us two hours. Back at the base, the shuttle took us back to the village (it was more than punctual, supposed to leave at 12:30, but Ami had warned us to be there at 12:20, and the bus left at 12:17), where we went to a restaurant for lunch. We had a very nice green vegetable, along with chicken and mushrooms, and pork and potatoes. Once again too much food, as Mr Dung did not join us, and Ami only eats a very small amount.
I had a nap on the 2 hours return trip to Beijing. Back in the city we went to look at the Olympic stadium and the Water Cube.
Thank you for sharing, if it comes to China - I will never say: Enough videos or enough photos - no more, as there is always something else unexpected new and interesting to discover and I am looking forward to go there again as there are so many more places I want to visit. It was / is also about those friendly, helpful, heart warming people we met at those remote non touristy places, regardless where we went they made us feel welcome and so "at home".
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