The Great Wall

This was probably the highlight of my trip to China. We left the hostel at 7.30 and as we wanted to see the Wall away from the crowds we booked a Secret Wall tour. This was the best thing we could have done. We arrived at about 10 having caught glimpses of the main, touristy areas of the wall at Badaling. There was nobody there at all and we couldn't even see the wall, we realised it was going to be a trek. A steep trek ensued up a slope from the guide's village to the wall. This part took about half an hour and we ended up at one of the higher points of the Wall, at that point we could see just the immediate section. We walked on but it was extremely steep and rough in places. Soon we could see miles and miles of the wall, all over the mountains. The cold was unbelievable, when I said it was -4 in Beijing it was more like -14 on the wall and with the wind even worse but the most awesome sight in the world so no complaints. We walked up and down steps and slopes for another few kilometres about two to three hours walk in total, quite hard going but with plenty of stops for photos and videos. On the descent  we found some sun and warmed up a bit ready for a lovely lunch in the guide's village, really fabulous day, never to forget.