Ode to the Great One...The Great Wall!

A little overdue but I had to tell you all about the Great Wall!

Mao Zedong said...."He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man."
Looks like I'm now officially a true man! Alright!

It's a very surreal experience to think I am in a country bigger than my own and on the weekends I can just hop to other side if I so wish! I have been doing a lot of travel this way…2 days here…3 days there etc. I have a couple of little adventures coming up as it is summer holidays and it is a chance to consolidate my classes to a couple of days and get away for some more china experiences! I feel really lucky this way! Not many foreign teachers in China would be able to do what I am doing!

My last little stint away was just to do check out this little thing called the Great Wall! Haha! Let me tell you it was great! I dig anything to do with history and old history at that, so the Great Wall was a special experience.

My friend Martha and I coordinated schedules so we could do it together! Luckily the take off point was Beijing so we both met there in an awesome little hangout! Beijing have a heap of these old ally ways called 'hutongs' - they are banned from all things commercial so there is a lot of cute little boutiques and eateries without being OVERLY tourist orientated…although still so. We stayed at Beijing Downtown Backpackers. Great hostel. I really loved it - great amenities and friendly staff.  They also ran this tour to the great wall. The part we were going to was 3 hours outside of Beijing so void of the mass tourist crowds. However, a very bumpy ride indeed with some less than pleasant toilet stops! :)

So after arriving very late on Monday night to meet Marth who had been there all day, we grabbed some dinner and a few drinks and talked our way to 1:30am when we finally made it home to the hostel. Our wake up time was 6:30 so so much for getting rested up for our big walk!

We woke up early - not much to do as it certainly wasn't going to be any beauty pageant (unfortunate for the photos haha). Took a little walk, got some free brekky, complete with COFFEE!!!, and waited for our bus. Quite an odd bunch we were but ready to see the wall in all it's glory!

We ended up picking up a couple of young guys who were also travelling and checking out China and the three hour drive passed super fast as we shared humorous antics about our experiences in China. And then there we were! At the foothill of the Great Wall and what???? Oh no, I forgot my sunnies! Boo! Lucky for the myriad of vendors that were there to rip me off for a cheap pair! I bargained well for sure but I didn't choose to well cause they really didn't end up even fitting my head and would slide off. So I didn't end up wearing them anyway!

The hike was 6km! Up and down…up and down…up and down! A friend of mine kindly pointed out (from Australia, over text)  that that would be just a stroll and my efforts weren't impressive! Well I have the pics to prove it! Some parts I felt like spider man scaling the wall vertically, however not as fast and certainly not as agile! It was definitely tough at some parts but at the very end I decided it really wasn't as hard as what I thought. It certainly gave my granny knees some more wear and tear! I think I will need knee replacements upon my return to Aus! Getting worse and worse!

What made me feel worse about my pathetic efforts were the old ladies who climbed with us! I had one who attached herself to me…of course they wanted to sell you something towards the end, but they didn't mention it for most of the way! My lady was great and very entertaining, telling me how beautiful I was every time we took a pic. She taught me some Chinese as her English wasn't so bad as a result of being with tourists everyday and she was 65! Yep, 65 and climbing faster and more graceful than I was. Trying to help me up every second step. I am just getting used to this kind of thing these days. Anyway, in the end I didn't want any of her cheap souvenirs…so a 20 RMB tip and off she went.

We got back to Beijing eager for some cold beverages and something hearty to eat after our big efforts of the day! It was truly a spectacular sight! Through the panting and puffing and vertical scaling the views were amazing! One side, Inner Mongolia, the other China. And apart from one ugly highway, it was unspoiled views of country side!

We spent the evening in the hutong that we were staying in and chilled on the rooftop with a few cold beers and a nice spot of hookah!

The Great Wall was truly Great!

Love to you all!

Wish you could be here!

And a special shout out to my very special, dear, wonderful and supportive friend Ramona who I know is reading this blog as the devout follower that she is! I miss you so much girl! Can't wait to see you in just over twelve months!! Xx

HJ xx