The Great Wall of China

Up at 05:15, as our pickup was due at 6am. We were expecting the worst as this was a cheapest trip we could find to the Great Wall. Our driver finally picked us up at 8am! First stop a large Jade factory where we could see the different phases of how they carve the jade and make those balls with one inside another. A quick walk around but nothing bought as it was so expensive. Second stop Ming Tombs, another temple, but we did find out that when the emperor dies his wife and favourite concubine eat poisonous food and kill themselves so they can all be buried at the same time. Gross! Before arriving at the Great Wall we stopped for some lunch, everyone from the mini bus, 10 of us all together sat around a large round table and a lazy susan in the middle with lovely chinese food for us all to eat. Okay, now the highlight of the trip, Mutianyu Great Wall. It has an extremely beautiful natural landscape set upon mountain ridges. To get to the wall you can either walk up, taking about 30 minutes, or like Jody catch the cable car. It cost £6 but in this heat and with all the walking on the wall to do, she definitely did the right thing! All around the wall it is green and has densely populated woodland. There are 20 towers on the Mutianyu Great Wall snaking the ridge for about 3000 meters. But you must remember it is not a flat wall, far from it, the wall climbs very steeply over the ridges of the landscape making it quite difficult to climb in places with very high stone steps. We headed south once we reached the wall towards one of the watch towers at that part of the Wall which are distributed at short intervals. The 20 watch towers are numbered from right to left, or from east to west. The 20th tower is highest point of the Mutianyu Great Wall. We headed to the first tower. The wall was just as you would expect it, a wall on top of a hill side. This part of the Great Wall has been beautifully restored and as such has a large number of tourist walking along it. Once we reached the final watch tower the Great Wall turned back in to its pre-restored state, covered in foliage, vegetation and crumbling back in to the hillside. Although this was the case, seeing the wall in this way brought an extra sense of perception to how old the wall actually is (about 1000 years). We got to spend about one and half hours on the wall, which is plenty, it was very hot and hard work climbing all the steps. We were disappointed when we were first told we only had this amount of time as we had wanted to spend hours there. In the end we were glad we didn’t have to stay there too long! So back to the mini bus and off to the largest silk factory in the world. The silk factory gave us a tour and explained how silk is made from the silk worm, how strong it is and the two different types of silk cocoon, single and double. Single cocoons are used for making thread for clothes whereas the double is made in to quilts for bedding. We then got shown the shop, and oh we just loved it. We both could have quite easily have bought loads of silk bedding. But we are travellers and silk bedding is of no use to us. But the guide has the perfect answer for us she showed us a pillow which folded out to become a blanket, and of course it was pure silk. After haggling the price we both bought one for £10 each, now we would sleep softly at night anywhere. Dr Tea’s shop was our next stop. We all tried four different teas and shown how to drink them (did you know you should chew Oolong tea??) but best of all was the Pee Pee Boy. A small clay boy that you pour hot water over his head. If the water was the right temperature he would squirt water, the further he squirted the hotter the water. Bryan just had to have one of course (ask to see it when we get back as it is quite funny). Last stop and a very welcoming, surprise stop at the National Olympic Sport Centre. We were shown into a room at the basement level and everyone took a comfy chair. Then 10 young students walked in and we were all treated to a thirty minute foot massage. Bliss after such a long hot day walking the Great Wall. Everyone got their own personal masseur and Jody’s was quite funny. His name was Johnny and he seemed to be the class clown. he spoke a little English and aided by his tutor we were able to communicate a bit. He was very funny. Final stop on the trip for those who had not seen it before, was the Olympic Stadiums but as we had already been there, we were happy to sit on the bus and let our lovely feet have a rest. All the activities were included in the price of £15 so we were very happy and had a lovely day. (We were asleep by 8pm though!)