The GREAT Great Wall

We had planned a driver to pick us up at 9 o'clock today. As expected, he was standing right in the lobby waiting for us to take us to the Great Wall. We could see the blue sky when we got there, so it was a great day to go. It was about an hour drive to the Mutianyu part of the Great Wall, a tiny section in a man-made wall about 5500 miles long. It took over 2,000 years to build. 

The Great Wall and blue sky

When we got there, the driver led us to a ticket booth and after receiving our tickets for the chair lift up and slide down, he pointed us in the direction we needed to go. Having no clue what we needed to do next, we found a coffee shop, sat down at a table after ordering some warm drinks and looked at the maps, brochures and tickets. Even after looking at those, we still had no clue where to go to next. After wandering around for a while, we came across a bus station that a small tour had just entered, so we decided to follow them. They led us to a bus where we hoped we were supposed to be. It looked like the people around had their tickets out and ready too, so that was reassuring. We hopped off the bus, and immediately found a map. It turns out we were in the correct place and the place we needed to be was just a short walk up. We asked one of the workers to make sure it was the right spot. She nodded her head and we were on our way up. We rode up a chairlift up to the wall. There was also a cable car at another location farther away.

The Great Wall stretching off 

into the distance

Once at the top, we took a right and followed the wall for a ways. LuRue went up to the third watchtower from where we were. Montana went up through 4 watchtowers. Anything past the fourth was for non-tourists. To get to the top, we had to climb up many flights of steep stairs. It was almost like back on the Macchu Picchu trail, except this time we weren't going for 4 days or carrying packs, plus we had the Great Wall to entrance us as we were climbing up. There was lots of stopping to take pictures too. Montana ended up with around 160 pictures, but was able to cut them down to only 70 pictures. 

The Great Wall is awesome 

even in chilly weather

There were not many big crowds of people, especially the further up we got. One man we passed, who was going down, commented on how fit LuRue was as she was crawling, pushing and pulling her way slowly up the stairs. A lot of the tourists just plowed their way up the stairs, but LuRue and Montana both carefully placed one foot in front of the next while grabbing onto the hand rails, because the stairways were so steep. We were both amazed that the wall was built with just hands. 

LuRue navigating some of

the steep stairs

LuRue waited at the 3rd watchtower while Montana went up to the fourth and back down. We both walked/butt slid our way down to the chair lift . We walked a little ways on the wall  on the other side--past the chair lifts, looking for a restroom (in vain) before coming back to the chair lift. 

Montana and LuRue had tickets for the slide to go back down, but LuRue was not allowed to, because she was too old, which was stupid, because you were allowed to control your speed and it was a very safe ride. However, LuRue, without complaint, went down the chair lift and Montana went down the slide. They met at the bottom and took the bus back to where their driver was. 

It was 1:30 and they had to meet the driver at two, so they stopped in to a restaurant and got a REAL hamburger for the first time in several months. It was very delicious. They met their driver where he had said he would be and they were on their way back to Courtyard 7. 

When they got back, they took a couple hours to rest. Montana started on the blog and edited her pictures while LuRue did her usual OCD figuring-things-out type stuff. 

At 5:30, they went out to go to Qianhai lake, which one of the receptionists recommended for us to go to at night. It was very beautiful with all the flashing signs, raining lights from trees and different styles of music as we walked around the lake. 

The view from Qianhai Lake

On our way back we walked through all the hutongs (old alley ways) of Beijing in the dark, except for a few street lights on the sides. We did successfully reach the "walking street". We walked up and down the street looking for ice cream (and not frozen yogurt), but didn't find any. We did make a stop by the ATM to get out some money as we were running low. 

When we got back to our hotel we finished the day off by making a stop by the restaurant to get a bowl of real ice-cream. Chocolate for LuRue and mango/chocolate for Montana.