Day 101: Beijing - Great Wall

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Today we arranged for a car and driver (John Ping – Ping driver, excellent) to take us out to the Great Wall, or “Long City” as the correct translation of its Chinese name. Picked up at 7am to get out to the wall at Mutianyu nice and early, and hopefully before the crowds. About 90 minutes later, after seeing some of rural China for the first time, we park up at the first parking bay from the entrance at this site. Hardly anyone else around and only the first few local have begun setting up they stalls.

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As recommended by John, who thankfully has a much better handle on English than either of us has been able to demonstrate of Mandarin with our 3 words, we opt for the cable car up the hill and aim to ascend from tower 14 to 20 before retracing our route back to 14 and beyond to 6, where descent back to the car park is by chair lift or toboggan. This equates to something like 10kms and takes around 3 hours. First views of the wall as we reach the top of the cable car are everything we dared hope for and more, it’s just fantastic. Even better is the fact that as we head off along to tower 20 there’s only one couple ahead of us, and they’re quite a bit away and so we really do have the place to ourselves.

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The wall itself is about 12ft across and ranges from 20-30ft high, but it’s the fact that its built on hillside and mountain ridges whilst stretching as far as the eye can see in either direction that blows us away. In particular the first section we hike is magnificent as it snakes one way and then the next following ridgelines, culminating in a very long and steep stairway up to tower 20 which is as far as you’re allowed to go on this section. This area has been restored in the last few decades, but thankfully being one of the later sections to be opened up for tourists it’s been done very well (no fresh breeze blocks here!).

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As we travelled back tourist numbers increased and we become ever more thankful of that first hour alone up there and the photos taken. The wall itself has numerous fort like towers, probably every 500m or so, a few of which have staircases up to the top and one which I scrambled up the rocky sloping remains of a staircase to get a look at.

By the time we came back down the market was in full flow, hundreds of locals trying to flog us “I’ve climbed the Great Wall T-shirts” and other such tat. Takes us a few minutes to locate our driver, found winning at cards with some of the other drivers. Tired, and by now quite warm (it having been freezing as we started), we head back to Beijing for some lunch. This has to be one of the highlights of our trip so far.

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Later that afternoon, after a rest, we head out to Yuoxi Market for some shopping. The market is a huge, multi floored place with very distinct sections – eg back left corner of the 4^th floor comprises around 40 watch vendors, whilst the basement contains hundreds of bag stalls and shoe stalls. I fairly quickly spot a nice watch but walk off disgusted at the ludicrous prices being quoted. A few minutes later I get a much more sensible price on the same watch from the stall opposite and begin negotiations in earnest. Also picked shoes for Jane, a t-shirt for me (surely as real a Ralph Lauren as my watch is a £15 Tag Heur) and Prison Break Season 2 on DVD, which to my relief (and almost surprise) works!

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Haggling at these markets seems to start with the vendor quoting a astronomical tourist price of up to 10 times what you’ll actually settle at if you persevere. Jane doesn’t really like the bartering much, finding it quite aggressive and quickly prefers to give up and walk away, which fortunately has the effect of lowering the price further to allow me to finish the bartering. I really enjoy the bartering, little surprise there, the only annoyance is when some of the locals grab hold of you to literally try and drag you into their little area. Needless to say that’s easier said than done if you’re only 5ft and picking on me, but we did encounter a large black American guy jokingly complaining that he’d been kidnapped and held hostage by the shoe saleswomen despite them not having any trainers big enough for him. Can’t help but get the feeling that even when paying a relative pittance for things after some hard bargaining that I’ve been had, oh well its only a few pounds.

I'm the King of the Castle (look closely)
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Across the road from the market we discovered The Den, an ex-pat pub, where we stopped for a non rice and noodle based dinner and a pint.