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The Trek to and Along the Great Wall by Preciouse Fauteux We got on the 7:45pm train from Shanghai to Beijing. It was a 12-hour express ride in a sleeper car for only $500 RMB per person. Once we arrived in Beijing we found a hostel across the road for only $60 RMB per person per night, which unfortunately was all sold out. A man outside the hostel told us that he had a hotel near the Forbidden city for only $140 RMB a night and he didn't even finish his sentence before we hopped in the car. The hotel was a bit shabby but the bed had clean sheets and a sink with running water. |
The next morning we woke up at 6:30 a.m. and found a private taxi to take us to Mutianyu for $300 RMB. Mutianyu is about 2 1/2 hours one way from Beijing and the least visited area of the Great Wall. The driver dropped us off in the car parking lot and off we went. You begin your journey by passing vendors selling the same nick knacks and shirts, that say, "I climbed the Great Wall" for an exorbitant amount of money. You finally pass the hustle and reach a ticket booth that says, "Great Wall Entrance". We paid our $35 RMB to walk through the gates and headed up a steep mountain of nicely paved walkways and freshly trimmed trees.
It took about 1 hour of hiking before we actually got to the Wall, where an old lady walks up and down during the ascent picking up trash and making sure no trash was thrown over the edge of the Wall. |
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We climbed and I mean climbed, it felt like we were on all fours trying to make it up to the cable car tower. Once we finally reached the halfway mark of four more hours of difficult hiking or turning back for a comfortable decent, we decided to hike four more hours on an incline.
The scenery was of green trees, brown mountains and a million mile away parking lot where we began the journey. There were guard posts every mile or so and a vendor sitting in the shade the post had given selling warm water and cigarettes.
We finally reached the "NO Tourist Zone" and thought about turning around, but of course we came this far we couldn't just turn back. Rocks were falling and this magnificent structure called the Great Wall was torn to pieces and only stones lay on the ground when we continued further. Guard posts were only three-walled structures and the green trimmed trees we saw before are now wild with anger wrapping their vines in anything they can. Unkempt bushes and plants of every kind cramped the pathway and piles of feces were on the ground. It was only our eighth hour of hiking when we decided that the scenery wasn't changing and our hike wasn't getting easier, so we decided we had enough and turned round.
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