The Great Wall-Mutianyu

            One of the reasons I was so excited to travel to China was to see and climb on the Great Wall. It's always been a "bucket list" destination for me and Mom puts the day into context pretty succinctly so I'll let her do the talking:  "Climbing the Great Wall of China is just that, a climb.  We planned this event for a few days after the May Day holiday.   The factories had been closed, and the clearer air had reached this area outside Beijing.  So it was sunny and hot for our most strenuous day.  We took the subway to a bus station, then the bus for about an hour.  At the bus station we met a helpful man who told us where to get off the bus.  It turned out that he was a tour guide, in fact, somehow, he was our tour guide!  He was friendly, helpful and didn’t seem to overcharge for the 45 minute car ride to the wall.  When we finished, we called him, and he returned us to the bus station."

            

Our first view of the Mutianyu wall.  Yes, it's still touristy but it's the oldest and most original section relatively close to Beijing.

Excellent description.

View of the tourist path.  The vendors were very pushy and annoyed that Landon spoke Mandarin. 

Finally touched the Great Wall! So much history both military, cultural and emotional within the walls.

Made it up, time to explore!

Just think of all the people who worked on building, maintaining and defending it.

A cool moment for us both.

            The wall itself is a real climb, up and down flights of stone steps. The view was pretty good since this section survived because it was too high on a ridge for the Chinese to dismantle it for the stone.  The surrounding mountains were pretty but still somewhat obscured by haze.  

            We weren't alone on the wall either:  Tourists at Mutianyu.

My favorite pic of the Great Wall.

Gorgeous. 

I wanted to get down on the other side of the wall.

Mom and Abigail heading up.

            Here we're all taking a break from climbing.

View after the climb.

            Here a video of us climbing those steps and be sure to listen to Abigail's reaction at the end:  Climbing Mutianyu.

            One thing that I strongly recommend if you climb the wall, actually I recommend for any day trip you go on, is to bring a small water backpack.  I used it every day during our trip but when everyone else was having to pay $4-$6 dollars for a small water, I was using the bottled water from our hotel.  Mom and Abigail weren't sure about my decision to buy it but they were believers once they quenched their thirst with my cold water during our hot hiking.

Converted.
          

Soaking it all in.

It says no admittance because this part of the wall was broken down but we had to go explore some more.

Part of the original wall!

I loved how the original wall overlooked everything else. It was really a peaceful moment. 

Not Ray-Ban sponsored but we could've been.

Artsy picture time!

A picture of a Monday taking a pic of a Monday taking a pic.

Brother shot!

            "We all slid back down the ridge to the parking lots via a Disney-World type ride.  We all had individual seats with brakes, and the tube-like slide looked like a water ride without the water. It was fun and a great way to exit the ridge!  

The "train station".

Yes, that is what we slid down, without signing papers or wearing a helmet.  It was awesome!

Lastly, no the track was not automated, you wore no seat belt and you only had a small brake.

            Lastly, Mom pointed out, "I try to hike at least once every vacation, and I’m glad we made the effort to hike the Great Wall that is less crowded than the one nearer Beijing. It was a bucket list day!"  Couldn't agree more, I'll never forget that day.