We left early in the morning after a Chinese attempt at an American
style British fry up. It was ok but obviously not the real thing. The
Great Wall of China is about 50 Miles away from Beijing and with
getting out of the city traffic it was nearly a 3 hour trip. We got
there in the end and had the choice to either walk up to the wall
(which would have taken hours and basically meant scaling a mountain)
or take a chair lift direct to the top. We choose the chair lift.
Michelle was not a fan of the height or China's lack of health and
safety!!!!!! As Michelle stated - all that was stopping us from
falling out of our two seater glorified bench and a long way down was
us holding onto a handrail and pushing our feet against a footrest the
size of a lion bar!!!! Hence Michelle's eyes being shut tight and
praying the whole time :D the lift went up over the hills and across
valleys which provided some nice views.
The Wall itself was amazing. It was originally built over 2000 years
ago and has been improved and rebuilt many times. When it was first
built the emperor order 1/5 of the countries population to help build
it. It is truly massive. Lots of people died when it was made and when
it was rebuilt. They now estimate that 1 million bodies are buried
inside the wall. So not only is it the biggest wall in the world it is
also the biggest graveyard (creepy).
We knew that the wall followed the line of the top of the mountains
but we were not prepared for just how step it was at some points! It
felt more like climbing than walking at some parts. With very few
handrails you always had this vague fear that if you tripped at the
top of a long steep climb you would bounce all the way down hundreds
of meters. But it was worth it for some spectacular views of the wall
and surrounding mountains
At the highest point we climbed to, we found the views breath taking,
I wish we could share more pictures but our internet connection is not
amazing and we have to limit how many we upload. At the high tower we
found the wall carried on but we weren't allowed to continue along as
it was crumbling away. The part of the wall we walked on had been
repaired but sadly large sections of the wall are falling to bits with
trees growing around it, on it and through it! Fortunately they have
miles and miles of restored walls to explore.
After we had finished on the walls we had an excellent Chinese meal
and Michelle got her first real Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken since
coming here. She was very happy!
All in all today was another great day however our legs are aching
from two days of long walking in a row. Taking a more gentle approach
tomorrow.
P.S.
If you want to see a video of us coming down from the Great Wall by
toboggan click the link below. We wanted to put it on YouTube but its
blocked in China. So we have tried to use microsoft but you may need
to download something called silverlight to view it. Silverlight is a
little programme thing from microsoft and is completely safe.
https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=80fff25f046c9f44&resid=80FFF25F046C9F44!517&parid=80FFF25F046C9F44!124&authkey=!AD2ZqtRvsqC7gbo
Wow the toboggen looks amazing, it must have been worth the chair lift up just to get on the slide down. We are both really jealous. Was the chair lift as bad as the broken cable car in Switzerland or the broken chair lift in Germany where they kept us hanging in mid air.
ReplyDeletegoodnight sleep well love Mum and Dad xxxx
Michelle Doesn't believe the chair lift was worth it. I think it was a bit better then the old German one it didnt keep us hanging at all. But it was VERY high at some points and also windy.
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