Thursday, January 9, 2014

In Which We Walk on a Wall

So, you may have guessed that this post is going to be about our trip to the Great Wall of China. You guessed right! This was quite possibly, in fact, not possibly, it was, my favorite day we spent in China. I mean, the terracotta warriors were awesome, but it was definitely a "see" attraction, and I'm a guy who prefers the "do" types of attractions, so the Great Wall was just more fun for me, because we actually got to do something. (It's for that same reason that visiting Fushimi-Inari-Taisha was one of my favorite activities on our trip to Japan) The fact that that something happened to be hiking, which is one of my favorite things, only helps its cause. But, I get ahead of myself. It was actually a bit of an adventure just getting to the wall. We chose the section called Mutianyu, because we had heard from a few people and also the guidebook and the Internet that the most popular section, Badaling, actually kind of sucks and is ridiculously crowded and is so restored that it looks fake. While Mutianyu is the second most popular section of the wall, it is a bit more difficult to get to. You start by getting on a bus and then taking it to a certain stop. What stop was that, you ask? Well, none of the sources we had were really definitive on that subject. The guidebook said one. Another website said another. Another website listed three stops that were fine. Besides that, the bus announcements are only in Chinese, and even though the names are also Chinese, that doesn't mean that we can understand them. Luckily, we came up with a system. A family of foreigners got on the bus in front of us, and we saw that the father of that family spoke Mandarin, and we figured that they were probably going to the same place we were, so we decided to do what they did. Also, that wasn't really necessary, because the bus conductor marked us right as we got on and told us in sign language that we should get off when he told us to. We did that, and he led us to a minivan (he called it a minibus) and drove us to the wall. The family who got on in front of us (who turned out to be German) also rode in his "bus." He told us (through the guy who not only spoke Mandarin and German, but also English) that he (the bus conductor-turned taxi driver) would wait for us for a few hours and drive us back to the bus stop, and it would only cost like 20 dollars total for the whole shabang. We said that was cool. Then one of the bus conductor-turned taxi driver's friends helped us buy our tickets and off we went. The whole experience started with a chair lift. Here's a picture:


Here's another picture:

First view of the wall!
Sure, we could have hiked up to the wall for cheaper, but then we thought, "Hey, how often do we get to ride a chair lift?" we also got plenty of hiking in, so the extra exercise was unnecessary. Plus, chair lifts are fun. When we got to the top, I only banged my head a little bit getting off the lift, and we were on the Great Wall of China!

So, what can I say about the Great Wall? It was GREAT! (pun intended) Seriously, I loved it. It was awesome to be on an ancient structure that has stood there for thousands of years. And granted, I realize that it's restored, but part of it is original, and this wall feels pretty legit. Plus it's up in great scenery with excellent views. It was really a lot like hiking in the mountains, only your trail is a giant, ancient wall with irregular, sometimes crazy steep steps. We both had a really great time, though, and the weather was excellent. About halfway up the first set of stairs I decided to go coatless. I got a lot of funny looks for that, but I didn't regret it. I get warm when I'm hiking. It was just a great experience! Here are some pictures (disclaimer: there is probably going to be a crapload of them)

That's the Great Wall in the background!

Totally stoked.

But trying to keep cool.

This part was crazy steep!


Me on the steep part.

Warning: There are probably going to be a lot of pictures that look like this. I couldn't choose a favorite.



This is the end of the Mutianyu tourist section of the wall. You're technically not supposed
to go past here, but there was a very well-defined trail and based on what I read I think this
leads to the section called Jiankou.

Nancy was excited to be there too.



We were happy to be there together!

Going back down the steep part. One lady with a British accent that we saw said, "They don't
make them like they used to!"


In this picture you can see part of an unrestored section of wall. I thought that was pretty cool. It's been there for thousands of years!



"Oh, you know, just chillin'. With my gut hanging out."

This wall has the Captain Danger seal of approval.


Another picture of the "wild wall" you could see from the restored part. I just thought it was awesome.






I think the big blocks might be original. How cool is that?


We took this picture to prove that we were actually there.




I thought this shot was artistic. It would have been better if all those people weren't standing
there. Or if I knew how to use Photoshop to take them out.

Nancy with an old cannon. I don't know if it's original or not, but it's pretty cool.



So, the wall was sweet, as you can see from the many pictures above. The way we got down was pretty awesome. They have a toboggan that goes on a track there and you can pay to take it. We figured, "Heck, we're on vacation! Let's go big!" We took the toboggan. It was fun. It would have been more fun if there wouldn't have been a really slow girl in front of us and a really loud Chinese guy behind us who (unfortunately) knew enough English to tell us repeatedly that we were going too slow. We did, however, manage to snap a couple pictures.

Nancy getting started.

Nancy ahead of me.
In this one you can see the annoying Chinese guy behind me.
Things went fine getting back. We actually ended up having dinner with the German family, who were really interesting, and it was fun having dinner with a larger group, because we got to try more things, since we ate Chinese style with all the food on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and split the bill. So, that was our day at the Great Wall! So cool! It definitely made the trip to China worth it (not that it wasn't already) and we both had a great time. This is Captain Danger out.

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