On the bus at 8.00am and heading out of town to the Great Wall of China – a miserable day today – rain, mist, cold and all hoping that things might improve when we get to ‘The Wall’. No such luck!
Not much to tell here as we eventually arrived – and headed up the cable car to the wall entrance, climbed a few steps – well about 100!!! and onto the actual wall. AMAZING VIEW!!!!!! The 10 feet in front of us was ‘sort of clear’ and after that couldn’t see a thing!!!!
Consequently we saw nothing except the few feet in front of us but a couple of us decided that we are only here once and off we went – up, up, up, up, up slippery, struggle, up, up steps, slippery but eventually managed to pull ourselves up to the guard tower where we could go no further anyway – it was blocked off. Did the compulsory photo thingies and slipped and stepped our way back down ever so carefully!
Disappointing and something I would one day like to get back and see properly but at least I can say ‘been there, done that’ and climbed a section of THe Wall. The section we visited is only a small area of the 8000 odd km length wall that tourists can view anyway – this particular length was probably only about 500metres but very steep and tricky to go up and down. There are other areas the public can view but a lot further out of Beijing.
On then to the Ming Tombs – still miserable weather and the long and short of it – “that’s where the Emeror is buried under that huge mound of earth” – the earth has never been excavated and believed to hold 2 main rooms with tombs for Emperor and Emporess. But have to say, we were all cold, damp and miserable so – back to the bus please!!!
Next stop, the ‘Serenity Way’ a beautiful 1km long walk the length of either side interspersed with huge animal statues and weeping willow type trees – as said atruly beautiful place for a walk – on a nice day!!!!!! It drizzled the whole time, was cold and although lovely, we all got saturated and just wanted ‘out’!
Back on the bus and tonight it’s ‘free’ time. Need a good rest I think!
