The Great Wall and Beijing

Today I climbed The Great Wall of China.

I had a rough start to the day, my alarm didn’t go off. I woke up at 7 minutes to 6, and we were to promptly leave at 6. Luckily, I had already laid my clothes out and was prepared. I was out the door in 5 minutes, and at the bus by 6. And I wasn’t even the last one.

It was supposed be to take over two hours for us to get to the Wall, but our bus driver made it there in one hour, fifteen minutes. We were impressed.
We had to take a shuttle bus from the parking lot, which required us to walk through a shopping village. At this time of day it was empty and desolate which was quite peaceful.

We had a few options to get to the Wall, take a cable car, or walk the pathway. I purchased the cable car option, I wanted to save my energy for the way. This would take us up to tower 14 and from my research I knew that walking towards tower 20 would be the most challenging but also the most beautiful. It’s also the most authentic part of the Wall.

We all separated our ways and ventured up different ways, but eventually we all almost crossed paths.

The Wall definitely was challenging at some points, I decided that I wanted to go up to tower 20, I just broke it down and took rest breaks, but I was determined to do it. There were points I was almost crawling, but I did it. It was amazing. This was such a fantastic sight to marvel.

It was a structure that I had to soak up. I took breaks between the towers, and just looked around at where I was and where I was standing. I thought about the people who built this, how many died, and how they built something without the technology we have today. It really made me think and appreciate where I was, it was humbling.

Now by making it to tower 20 my legs were already jelly, and I realized that I had to make it back. And the stairs to leave tower 20 were enough to make your legs shake. I descended down sideways since the steps were so uneven going down backwards I was likely to miss a step and plummet to my death or severe injury. Slowly but surely I made it down.

The walk back was just as nice and tiring. It also started to rain so we were getting cold too. It was busier at this time too, so we had to share the Wall with more people. This meant, waiting and pushing and shoving, so the usual.
We eventually made our way out and to the cafe where part of the group was. Some ventured down earlier whereas some opted to stay on the Wall and jump the barrier to the higher towers. We sat down and rested a bit before heading back down.

At the bottom I decided to grab a sandwich from subway since I only had a quick pastry breakfast on the way there. I also did pick up a bamboo portrait of the Great Wall, and had my name and date engraved on it. I plan to frame it when I get home.

We made our way back to the shuttle, and then to the bus to head back to the hotel. By this time the Wall was already getting super busy, so I’m glad we had an early morning to experience a practically empty Wall, and be able to go as far as we did.

The rest of today was really overshadowed by this morning. I’m still reflecting on how amazing it was, and that I’m here and climbed it. I’m very fortunate and feel so lucky to have done so.

I’ll be honest I haven’t done much today afterwards, except go shopping for some small souvenirs for myself and friends. Yes Samantha, I did pick something up for you 😜
Oh and I went to the grocery store. I’m slowly building a stockpile of food, and the hotel gives free bottled water so I’m hoarding what I can. Tomorrow will be grocery hunting day though because the day after is train day!!!!! First leg is 40 hours. I’m charging my power bank up to get it ready for that adventure.

Off to dinner ... Alex has got something wicked planned, and he mentioned Scorpion Bowls?!?!?

Evening update: no scorpion bowls were had, it was actually deep fried scorpions, yup. I ate two, and they were quite crunchy and tasty. And apparently starfish taste like ocean that was pissed in, and anything that is good is now “fucking delish” preferably said with an Irish accent.Read more