The Great Wall of China

Today was one of the most memorable days of my life. After getting some breakfast jianbing we packed up our stuff and left our cute room in Beijing. We drove for about two hours leaving the city and I unfortunately had my first experience actually using a squatter toilet, which I hope I will never have to do again. We arrived at the base of our hike, a mile away from the actual wall, after a treacherous drive. In China it seems to be acceptable to drive in the lane for traffic going the opposite direction for more than just passing. I also don't know if speed limits exist. If they do, no one seems to know.

Our guide handed us hiking poles, which worried me a bit. I had no idea what we were getting into, but the stick offered some foreshadowing. We took off and immediately found ourselves walking up a wall. The trail was almost straight up, however this challenge was compensated for by a change in scenery from concrete to many different kind of trees offering a canopy above and delightful birdsongs. After an hour of tough work we reached the real wall. Interestingly, we hiked in from the enemy side so there was no proper entrance to the wall. Locals put up a few wooden ladders to help tourists and charged 5 yuan each to use them. We paid, glad for the ladders, and stopped for beautiful views, pictures, and some much needed water.

We continued hiking on what is called the "Wild Wall," areas of the wall that have not been renovated and have been slowly falling apart for the past 500ish years. There were bricks scattered all over the place and plants growing everywhere. It was actually quite beautiful to see something so old could still exist outside without preservation. We continued hiking for quite a while, but stopped for lunch at the base of the wall on the Chinese side when we came upon a part that's too dangerous to hike. I was very glad for the short cut. Eventually, we reached the "Tourist Wall," which is the renovated section of the Great Wall in the Beijing area. The path changed a lot here, swapping out trees for people, and bricks for vendors. The wall was very clean here, but was surrounded by trash on either side. This part of the wall was probably the most difficult, as we had to walk down hundreds of stairs in a row going at a steep down hill angle. This hard walking continued as we walked through more towers until eventually reaching a gondola to take us down the mountain. We walked to our tour company's van and hopped in. Driving, and napping, another one and a half hours to our "farmhouse" for the night.

When we arrived at the farmhouse we realized it wasn't quite what we expected, which was a farm with a house on it. Instead we found a town that our guide basically said "farmed tourists" since it is so near the wall. However, the town feels anything but touristy. After we all showered, we headed to dinner down stairs and had some of the yummiest food from the trip, including steamed bread, eggplant, small leafy vegetables, hot and sour soup, egg, and rice. There was also some pork and beef with potatoes, but I didn't try those out. We went outside and walked around for a few minutes to check out the town. It is very peaceful with lights next to the lily filled river, and a very small farm. After not too long we headed back to our room to say goodnight. So... goodnight!

Health update: I now have two infected eyes and with my luck I will get a third. I haven't had a fever in a few days, but I'm still coughing and have a stuffed nose.