Day 2 (Part 1): The Great Wall

It was an early rise this morning, 5.45pm to be precise! Our guide told us that it’s best to get to the wall early for two reasons; firstly, the number of tourists and secondly, the heat!

We had a really quick breakfast and left the hotel at 7am. It was an hours drive to the wall and on the way we stopped off to see the Birds Nest stadium and Water Cube; both were built for the Olympics in 2008 and they look pretty cool. Unfortunately, there was a dust storm from the Gobi Desert in the city this morning so we didn’t get good pictures. The AQI Index which I mentioned previously was at 500 (out of 500) today, meaning hazardous! Thankfully, it was to clear as we left the city.

After the stadium photo opportunity, we got back on the bus and headed towards the section of the wall we were to climb. On the way, we were told the history behind it (it was built to keep the mongols out!) and loads of other interesting facts about Beijing. On a Monday, cars with registration plates that end in the number 4 or 7 are not allowed to drive on the roads in the city; this happens every day with a different combination of numbers. It’s certainly an interesting way to tackle the traffic problem! And you can`t buy a second car either, it`s a lottery system where only 20,000 people can register a car per month and there are a million requests! 

We eventually arrived at the wall...Wow!

We were dropped at the car park of Juyongguan Pass; it’s hard to believe that this was built so long ago (the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644). Its is one of the places you see in guide books and wonder if it will be as spectacular, it really is. We started the climb at around 9.15am and it was already 22 degrees and there were numerous buses in the car park. We were told if we got to “Fortress 12,” we would be heroes; the challenge was set!


The before shot - at the bottom!

Being the youngest in the group, we thought we would go for it. I reckon we got half way, then one of our group went past us; he is a spritely young man of around 70 (we think)! Granted he was the only one to pass us but wow! It was a hell of a climb; the steps are so uneven with small and gigantic steps in no particular order. I can’t even imagine being a soldier guarding one of the fortresses!

At Fortress 10, there is a shop so we decided to treat ourselves on the way back down. We still had loads to climb though and the temperature was creeping up every minute; hopefully you will get an idea from the pictures below.















The above picture is the shop and the one below, our treat! As you can tell, we are both relieved and knackered! I also haven’t got a clue what flavour of ic-cream I am eating but it was delicious!



After we navigated our way around the increasing number of tourists, we met up with our group at the bottom; only 6 of us made it up out of 29! We had a spare 15 minutes at the end but our legs wouldn’t stop shaking so we all headed back to the bus to make our way to the next stop.....






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anniversary Holiday

Image
Every year, around December 8th, I look to see what we can do or where we can go to celebrate "surviving" another year of marriage.   Over the last few years, we've been back to our wedding venue for an overnight stay, had an all-inclusive holiday in Ras al Khaimah in the UAE, visited New Orleans and had a Michelin tasting menu at The Kitchin in Leith. This year, we decided to stick with Europe and head to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Back in April 2020, we were supposed to visit Riga, but the trip was cancelled due to Covid. I'm not sure why its taken us so long for us to rebook, but the prospect of a traditional Christmas market and some Glühwein convinced us. We flew Ryanair from Edinburgh to Riga on Sunday 3rd December; the flight was 2 hours late, but thankfully we had paid for a lounge so we weren't too bothered. I had pre-booked a taxi on arrival and was delighted given the delay; the journey was only 15 minutes, but it was midnight and -10 when we arrived ...
Read more

Bucharest & Dracula

Image
This is another one of these holidays that we had booked in 2020, for my birthday to be precise. It's only now, April 2024, that we managed to rebook and make our way to the Capital, Bucharest and the mountains and countryside of Transylvania. It was the usual deal, British Airways via London using a companion voucher and Avios to upgrade to business class; I'm pretty sure the flights cost us £2. The flight to London was early, and it was absolutely beautiful coming into London; we had fabulous views of the city.  We arrived in Romania late afternoon, and had a taxi waiting to take us to the hotel. I had booked The Mansion Boutique Hotel, a 4 star hotel in the centre of the pedestrian district; we had to be let off by the side of the cobbled streets but thankfully it was only a 2 minute walk. Check-in was great, we got a glass of fizz each and taken to our room which was called "Zen". We actually didn't have too long, so unpacked quickly and made our way out of th...
Read more

366 Steps with a Hangover!

Image
Surprisingly, we weren’t feeling quite so fresh this morning. We decided to delay breakfast and go straight to the Belfry of Bruges, a medieval bell tower. There are 366 steps which lead you to the top of the 83 metre high building. Normally, this would be fine but with the cold and a hangover, I was not feeling the best. The spiral staircase is very steep at the top so they only allow 50 people up at a time; we had to wait at the bottom for a few minutes which was a bit of an inconvenience, but now I understand why they have these restrictions. We made it to the top and only had a 10 minute wait until 11am which would signal a lot of bells chiming. I’m sure you can imagine how my head was feeling at the end of it! After descending the tower, we headed to the Church of our Lady Bruges as there is a Michelangelo sculpture located there. Unfortunately, you had to buy a museum ticket in order to see it so we decided it wasn’t worth it. Instead, we went for lunch at a very quaint tea room....
Read more