The Great Wall

Hi everyone,

Yesterday, we went to the Great Wall.  It was an awesome experience.   First, we took a bus to Miyun, which is about halfway to Jinshanling.  We decided to hike from Jinshanling to Simetai (following the Lonely Planet instructions.  This is one of the mostly unrestored sections, not the Disneyland style wall which many people end up seeing.  We traveled with one person from our hostel, and met 2 others (who spoke Mandarin) in Miyun.  The 5 of us hired a driver of a minivan to drive us the rest of the way.  After some bargaining (this is China, one must bargain for everything) we agreed on a price and set off.  The driver was to pick us up in approximately 4 hours in Simetai.  Once we were in the van, and had arrived at Jinshanling, he decided to tell us that there was a parking fee in Simetai of 40 RMB, and that we had to pay it.  When one of the guys said no, he dropped it to 20.  I finally said no, we agreed on a price, and he relented.  They really have some nerve!

The Great Wall was simply beautiful.  It really deserves its title as one of the great wonders of the world.  The scenery was gorgeous.  Once we arrived, approximately 5 older Chinese women decided they needed to accompany us, to help us along the way.  Resisting all of our "boo-yaos" (we don't want) they came along, annoying us and trying to sell us goods.  They were useful in taking a couple of group shots, but apart from that they smelled rather vile, and we would have been happier without them.  About halfway through, they got tired of us, or rather, they could tell that we were not very good customers, and went along their way.

We got very tired climbing along the wall.  Including our frequent breaks for pictures, we spent at least 3 hours before we even arrived at the halfway mark.  This is when the women left.  We then entered the most difficult part of the hike.  There were places along the wall which had fallen down and were difficult to cross.  In particular, two spots had rather high drops, where we balanced precariously on the rocks as we lowered ourselves onto the lower parts.  Ilana's fear of heights made this somewhat difficult for her, but she fought through it (with some handholding) and was able to keep pace with the rest of us. 

When we finally got to Simetai, after getting slightly lost, and spending a tremendous amount of time on the wall, simply soaking up the experience, our driver was none too pleased.  He had been waiting quite a long time, and had two other guys with him.  They were there to try to undercut his price, but they had worked out some deal.  The idea was that he would force us to pay him to take us all of the way back to Beijing, as the buses had stopped running from Miyun.  After hearing the exorbitant amount he wanted for this service, we stuck to our original plan and had him drop us off in Miyun.  As we were traveling with him to Miyun, the price to get to Beijing kept decreasing.  He also mentioned that he was not legally allowed to enter Beijing, because he did not have the appropriate taxi license.  (So he would have driven us for a crazy amount of money, but not for less).  Once we got to Miyun, we found the place rather deserted. The driver then decided that he had a friend who could drive for cheaper.  We all piled into a Jetta (yes, the 5 of us + the driver) and got back to Beijing.   It was quite an experience!  All in all we traveled about 200km each way.  It ended up costing us around 140 RMB for the trip, which is around $23 CAD each.

This was one of the most exciting days on our trip so far! The scenery was impressive, the struggle to get home was interesting and the company was great.

Today, we are both rather sore from the hike, and it is also raining very hard.  We will see what there is to do, but we may spend an extra day in Beijing in order to get to see more of the sights.

Thanks for reading!

Note: All posts will say posted by Mike while we are in China.  Ilana will write her name before her posts in the future.  The entry about the Zoo / Aquarium was written by her.

Note: We will uplaod albums of the Zoo and the Great Wall as soon as can.