Climbing the Great Wall of China

Early rise today and had breakfast, such as it was. It was included in our tour package we bought last night. It was toast, cut up french fries (for hash browns I guess), a fried egg (regardless of how you like your eggs), 1 strip of bacon like substance, jam, and rancid butter. Yes, rancid. I don't think they understood that you must keep butter packets in the fridge...so dry toast it was. The day did get better, thankfully. We were met at our hotel by our tour guide who led us out of the hutong and into the Main Street where the minibus was waiting with other tourists. The minibus had the illusion of air con, but it wasn't very efficient. We picked up the rest of the tourists who had booked and before long were on our way out of Bejiing, bound for Mutianyu section of the Wall. It was a gorgeous day for it, blue skies, and trying to burn off the haze/smog. 

Once we arrived at the site, we had to climb up a fair distance to get to the cable cars which would then take us to Tower 14. We were given just over three hours to make it to Tower 23 and back, after which we would have lunch together before heading back to Beijing. The hike to the cable cars was hard enough, but nowhere near as hard as the wall proved to be. My daughter and I started out together, but before long she could see how slow I was going to be, considering I am overweight, not in great shape, and have asthma. I cut her loose and told her to go on ahead as she was determined to make it to Tower 23. I was quite certain I could/would not, so after a few photos of us together, she was off. I took my time then and moseyed, taking a ton of photos with my camera and my iPhone. There were endless breathtaking scenes to capture. I slogged on from Tower to Tower, all the way to Tower 20, which was quite an accomplishment. I had thought I would give up at 19, but then another gal on our tour, about my age, also with asthma inspired me to continue at least to Tower 20. The climb to Tower 20 was nearly vertical with large steps in places and small ones in others. It took a number of stops to get my heart back into my chest as it was pounding so heavily, it must have been outside of my body. I stopped for photos, drinks of water, and to catch my breath a number of times, but before I knew it, I was at the top of Tower 20 and I entered the Tower with a hooray, I finally made it. One of the local vendors came running over and gave me a high 5, and put a medal around my neck with the Great Wall on it, then ushered me into a chair in the shade. I bought a can of Coke and the medal for 100Yuan, which severely overpriced generally, but given they had to lug up the drinks, the ice, and souvenirs, I didn't mind paying for that. I waited about 15 minutes or so and then my daughter was in sight again, making her way back down. We had to meet our tour guide at 1:20pm for lunch as a group, so we headed straight down after meeting up again. We made good time, and landed at the restaurant at 1pm. 

The Great Wall and surrounding mountains are just breathtakingly gorgeous. I snapped so many photos on my camera and a number of iPhone photos, which I've added to the post here. My daughter ended up going much farther than the markers at Tower 23, and actually went onward to closed and wild sections of the Wall. She thinks she went as far as Tower 27 or 28. Good on her! I knew I couldn't make it that far.