From the Tian'anmen Square area the great wall is actually a 3 hour drive away. So we the night before we booked our tour with the hostel. Bus left at 6am. Yea, ugh. Except we sat on the bus for 20 minutes so technically we didnt leave until 6:20, then we had to go pick up a bunch of other people from their hotels/hostels (which was interesting because me, not knowing other people were coming went to the back of the bus and layed down across like 4 seats, only to be woken up by a bunch people wanting to sit there). Then happy day, everyday is a good day when we get to travel by bus in china. They are so smooth and you dont even notice you're on a bus, you feel like you're floating on a cloud really. (note that that last comment may contain high amounts of sarcasm). Moral of the story, riding on buses and in cars in china in general womps, big time. So i'm thinking i can just sleep on the way there, ha yea.... no. Oh and we got a little klepto on our hands. We were supposed to get breakfast provided (it was like a little sandwich deal thing) but the tour guide told us that we booked it too late and that they didnt have any for us. But there was another bus with us and there were 4 extra meals and no one on the other bus took them and the guy just set them on the seat Chantelle went and snagged us 3 of them (the guy used the fourth to write on).
Okay so theres a lot of different sections of the wall you can go to, just depending on how hard you want it to be and what you feel like doing. Theres a very popular section that most people go to because its easy and whatnot. Then theres a way challenging one that they discourage people over 55 going. Theres like 7 section altogether. So we chose Jinshanling to Simatai section. The lady at the hostel said its pretty popular but it is a 10K hike, you can take a cable car but (and i quote) "i think hiking make it more meaningful".
So we arrive at Jinshanling entrance 5 HOURS (instead of 3). Its pretty much in the mountains away from everything. So we get up there and i look at Chantelle and i'm just like "Chantelle. Where am I. Because i know i'm not on the flipping great wall of china."
Can i just say how lucky i feel that i got to go to the great wall. That i got to see it and experience it. I was just in awe the whole time. And if seeing the great wall wasnt enough it was THE MOST gorgous day in china yet. It was ridiculous. We saw the bluest of skies! (we havent seen real blue skies since we've been here) and the sun was out, it was a bit hot but it felt so good to get some sun. (and yes.. we all got kind of burnt.. and me being smart wore a long sleeve shirt so i rolled it up and now have a tan line in the middle of my arm.. haha)
So you dont walk the great wall, you climb it. Its not a nice flat walk through the park looking around. It was hard! The beginning of Jinshanling is a restored part of the wall and part of Jinshanling and Simatai is the original wall. So that was way neat that we got to see and climb both parts. It was just so neat. I suck at expressing how i really felt, so neat will have to do. So yea, its not all flat. Some parts are but mostly its decline or incline and then theres the super incline. And the stairs were about half the size of my feet and way steep and high and some stairs were rubble and some were just rocks. It was def not what i had in mind. But it was way cool. So once we arrived all these local ladies see tour groups and they grab their bags and they will walk all the way with you, at the end they try to sell you things. So we had some girl and some guy with us. But its actually really cool because they help you and explain stuff to you. And my lady was awesome a couple times it was really steep and i was getting up but obviously was getting a bit tired so like 3 times she took my hand and we would walk up together, she was so strong and steady for such a little person. But then of course at the end they try and sell you this book for 120 yuan, and we told them we didnt have any money, i gave her a 5 yuan because thats all i had and they get kind of mad because they think you're just rich tourists. So we hiked 30 towers and over all it took us 4 hours. By the end we were happy to be done, just because there were a couple parts where i'm pretty sure we were insane to even try it. There was a shortcut that the other girls took and some other people, but then they didnt get the whole wall experience. we get the bragging rights. It was just awesome.
After we were done we got picked up by a van and taken to a restaurant where we got lunch (included in our tour price) and it was WAY good! It was like a chinese mini buffet thing. There was tomato and eggs so i was stoked. (its my favorite china dish so far). The only thing that bummed us out was that our hostel told us that we'd be back by 6, we would've gotten back at our 8:30. We wanted to go to the silk market but it closes at 9, so we had about 40 minutes to spend there and that was nice because we got a good idea of the layout (explanation of silk market in next blog). And highlight! We found a SUBWAY!! Lorenda: "Hey! Look a subway!" Jessica: "Yea.. we have to ride it home.." Lorenda: "No, a subway! Like sandwiches." Oh my gosh i was so stoked. I have been craving a deli sandwich for forever with not wierd china deli meat and mayo and mustard and oh my gosh it was magnificent.
All in all, very VERY good day.
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