We are currently flying over the snow capped mountains of Russia while I update our third day in Beijing which was also the best day as we headed out to the Great Wall. There are a couple of places in the World that I have always dreamed of visiting. Three years ago we went to Cairns and I swam on the Barrier Reef. On that day I thought I had experienced the greatest travel experience I could have. Today while walking on the Great Wall a new number one was achieved.
We went to a section of the Wall known as Maitanyu about 90 km out of Beijing. This requires traveling through rural areas and small villages but as you get closer to the Mountains it is obvious that this area is a summer vacation district with fishing and fruit farms. We passed frozen rivers and lakes and a beautiful waterfall that was also frozen solid. As we came around a bend in the road we caught our first glimpse of the Wall running along the top of the mountains. It would go out of sight for awhile and the reappear until we came to the base of mountain ridge. There up above us stood a long stretch of the wall with a number of towers visible and a cable car rising up to meet it.
In a couple of minutes we reached the top and as I rounded the corner my breath was taken away as you see the wall stretching out for kilometers in either direction. For all the documentaries I have watched and photos I have seen nothing prepared me for the sense of majesty at its size and the enormity of its construction.
After taking a few 'family photos' on the terrace we took our first, very large, steps up into Tower 14. From here you could look along the wall I. Both directions. To the left was an upward climb to the peak of the mountain range and to the left a downward walk to another cable car and the toboggan ride at Tower 6. I thought Jene was going to turn around and return down the Cable Car but she pushed forward with some trepidation but also determination.
It didn't take long to reach our first set of stairs that ranged from sections of small close together steps up to large steps 1/2m high. These were separated by paved sections mirroring the contour of the mountain and as the weather was still at zero or below many sections were coated with ice. Jene's ankle has restricted mobility which saw her climbing down the steps sideways like a crab. We are talking a couple of kilometers and hundreds of steps but she carried on like a trooper. Only after coming through Tower 8 did she let out a groan as we saw the steep set of steps leading up to Tower 7. However looking back up the mountain to see where we had started from convinced her that forward was the only way to go. We finally reached Tower 6 with a great sense of achievement.
The Great Wall itself was amazing and once again beyond my ability to describe it so we hope the pictures do it justice. The coating of snow in some area added to its beauty. I could have kept walking but time, and Jene, wouldn't allow it. So Jene and our guide Sherry took the toboggan ride down to the bottom while I returned to Tower 8 and walked the 1000 steps back down. While this walk was challenging it was easier than running the gauntlet of small stallholders lining the narrow pathway back to the car park.
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