The Great Wall :)

I have saved the best till last and book a place onto a tour of the Great Wall. The section that I select is cancelled on the day I want to go… So I head out on a separate tour to a nearer part of the well at Muin located 1 ½ hours outside Beijing. At first site it is an impressive structure seeming to be effortlessly draped over the hillsides of the surrounding landscape as you pass. As you get closer it becomes larger and takes up your vision onto the horizon - An amazing site and one which should not be missed if you have any time in Beijing. There is a cable car here of the ‘daring do’ variety - in that you sit on a plank and a bar is lowered in front of you, before you reach the top the bar must be lifted and you must speed your way off or be dragged back down again!! Anyhow - on reaching the wall itself you have a choice of walking Towers 1-6, then 6-14 and back or walking 6-23 which is the furthest part of the wall currently safe and under renovation. The wall sections are in different states of repair and it is possible to easily spot the changes as you walk along - some of the wall has modern building materials and even slopes while the older sections have uneven stones and very steep/tall steps 0_0 These can cause a little vertigo on returning downhill as you cannot see the bottom of some of the slopes on approach to the drops!
I decide that the best option would be to push time and go for tower 23 ;) which is a good 4km distant… Well after building up quite a sweat hiking at as steady pace and climbing several hundred steps I find myself looking back on a breathtaking view with the sun illuminating sections of the wall and revealing the lime mortar and stonework. Other sections are swathed in shadow and this light and shadow adds character to the wall. Beautiful and magnificent, my pictures cannot do the place justice… A little itch sets me thinking, what is beyond tower 23? It looks like there is a little track going over rubble and along very narrow ledges climbing the wall through overgrown bushes… So I decide to add a tower or two and finally make it to tower 28 J This is my favourite section of the wall, it has not been refurbished in any way and is in its natural state with tumbled down towers filled with rubble and walls which at times are nothing more than a couple of rows of stones mounted on a 20’ ridge of stones. Bushes and shrubs crowd your path and there is a need to push throw in places, but it is so worth the effort as you are rewarded with more of an India Jones experience and you feel like a real adventurer :) On returning to the descent pathway you have the option to use the toboggan… If you have a need for an adrenaline fix then give it a go, it is a long way down and if you let the break off as I did you practically fly along the track barely touching it while going horizontal at the curves which have raised sides 0_0 GREAT :) (Be aware that some people do use the break so do leave it at least a few minutes before you get on board… This will give you a free run) I practically gave the guard at the bottom a heart attack as I career to the end at breakneck speed only to apply the break at the last minute… HARD, leading to a squealing slide to a rapid stop. A memorable day for several reasons and even though tourism has shaped this section of the wall it remains a wonder and the additions have made the wall more entertaining for a wider market. It remains for me one of the wonders of the world and a must see site (one of those 50 places to see before you die).

The experience was so good that I booked to do another trip to the Great Wall the next day to a section less developed 3 hours out from Beijing - once again this was a pleasure as our group of 8 (4 English, 1 French, 2 Ozzies and 1 Argentine) was wonderful encouraging each other along whilst recalling previous visits and current adventures. Once more there are wonderful old sections of the wall with only minor repairs with steep climbs sometimes without the aid of steps!! Need less to say that we were all very careful climbing back down along these sections ;) Both visits were stunning highlights of my trip so far and I would highly recommend the experience to all. I would love to see more of the wall opened to hiking in the future - I can but hope.