Today we took a tour to a section of the Great Wall called 'Mutianyu', about 70km NorthEast of Beijing. It took a good two hours to get there in our little bus, giving us ample opportunity to see the enormous amounts of building going on in and around Beijing at the moment. Despite driving solidly for two hours, only at the end did we finally leave the conurbation behind, once we began climbing into the jagged mountains, instantly reminiscent of classical Chinese art. This section of the wall is quite well-developed, even to the extent that it has two cable cars and a toboggan run (seriously!). We reached the wall at noon. Having decided that taking a cable car to the top would be cheating, we headed for the stairs. Half an hour later, we staggered to the top, greeted by a smiling old Chinese man. 'Water? Beer?' 'Maybe later,' I managed, trying to get my breath back. The renovated section of the wall stretches for 3km, following the ups and downs of the mountains like a stony rollercoaster. Somehow the wall fits very well with the scenery, perhaps because of the way it hugs the contours of the mountains so closely. The development of the area is quite sympathetic; even the cable cars are hard to notice, gliding silently through the fir trees. We trudged the entire length of the developed section of the wall, some of which is extremely steep. We'd been on the wall for about three hours at this point, and both of us were rather knackered. Time for that cable car!
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