Beijing was full of beautiful temples and modern architecture, but nothing can compare to the Great Wall. Really, a trip to Beijing is incomplete without a visit to one of the sections of the wall. Mercedes and I visited the MuTianYu section which is located about a two hour bus ride from downtown Beijing.
I don't really know who would be driving what up and down all the stairs, but I'm glad they were concerned about safety.
We chose this particular part of the wall because it was known to have fewer visitors and have more original sections than others nearby. It also promised to be a more challenging climb than the most visited sections (there's probably a reason for that). Even knowing ahead of time that it was supposed to be a tough hike, I was surprised at how difficult the wall was to climb. It is composed of never-ending stairs, broken up only by the gatehouses which originally provided shelter and served as lookout towers when the wall was used for protection. These days they were mostly used to house tired tourists looking for a reprieve from the scorching sun. The day we visited the wall it was a balmy 38C with a cloudless sky. It made for absolutely amazing photos, but it also made for very sweaty tourists.
When we arrived at the wall, it was suggested that we take the gondola up the side of the mountain to reach the wall to give us more time to explore. Turns out this "gondola" is a two person chair lift with a roof of sorts that was not designed for tall people (I managed to bang my head on the roof as I got off, only to have the guard yell to me after the fact to "watch out").
While this was a random enough way to ascend up the mountainside, the descent was even stranger. It was possible to take the chairlift back down, but the far more exciting option was to take a toboggan down the side of the mountain. A steel track was at some point installed and anyone (over the age of 8) is free to travel down on a tiny sled with a built in brake system. I can definitely say that I never thought the sentence "I tobogganed down from the Great Wall" would come out of my mouth (or even be plausible), but that is what I did. I didn't take any photos while going down, but here's a picture of the track as seen from the chair lift going up.
Upon arriving we were told that the best views were from the last gatehouse accessible to tourists, about a 3km walk (of nothing but up and down stairs) away. I decided to go for it, figuring the views would be worth it. They were not. The walk to the last few gatehouses was straight uphill, and the climb from the second last to the last gatehouse was up about 500 very steep stairs (so steep that descending involved almost bum-sitting my way down). This photo doesn't really convey the steepness, but the rise on each step was probably about 40cm.
I am usually quite comfortable climbing that many steps, but having done nothing but climb stairs for the past hour and doing so in the scorching sun made me quite shaky upon reaching the top. The views were nice, but no better than they had been at many other points along the way. And I would have been able to enjoy these other views without feeling dehydrated and exhausted.
The one benefit of walking so far was that I got entire sections of the wall to myself at times, allowing for some great photos of a tourist-free wall.
To be fair there were some stair-free flat-ish sections, but they were not as prevalent as I'd have desired.
I think what amazed me the most were the vendors who had somehow managed to carry freezers of cold water and beer, and souvenirs, up and down the steps in order to sell to thirsty tourists ready to pay outrageous prices for something to quench their thirst. I'm assuming the umbrella was not taken down each and every day, but it's quite possible it was also carried around.
I finished the day ready for a nap, but pleased with the experience.
Upon arriving back in Beijing, Mercedes and I found Magnum bars for less than $1 Canadian. A perfect ending to the day (for those of you who don't know what a Magnum bar is, well it's pretty well the perfect ice cream bar and normally sells for 3 or 4 times the price).
Although I saw many more exciting things in Beijing, I will not be writing about them as I must also update about Mongolia and the Naadam Festival (a festival of the "three manly sports"). It is pretty much the greatest festival ever. Stay tuned.
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