The key one on the list was a visit to the Great Wall. There are loads of tours and options for seeing the great wall – most of which include sections that have been heavily restored and which cater primarily to Chinese tourists.
While I'd been here the first time round, Brittny had been on a trip run by Leo's Hostel called “The Secret Wall” tour, that visits an un-restored section of the wall, and which has very few visitors. It sounded exactly like the kind of trip I wanted to do, and so booked myself a place.
The tour leaves early in the morning, and drives three hours out of Beijing. On the way you pass the main tourist places, and I was so glad that I'd decided to take this tour instead. The other sections were all jam packed and looked a bit like glorified theme parks – some sections even include cable cars and loads of shops.
There was a good mix of people on the tour, and the three hours there and back flew past...
The van drops you off in the middle of know where, and after 45 minutes of walking up hill you finally reach the first section of the wall – which you can see on the top of the hill as your walking up.
From there it's an hour or so along the wall to the first of the guard towers - which is in pretty good condition given it's age. There's a man selling water and other stuff inside – which was welcome as at 4pm this afternoon the official temperature in Beijing was 40 degrees. We ended up chatting to the guy at the stall while we had a well earned rest.
And then it's another two hours along the wall, before heading into a small village for lunch. After which it's three hours back to Beijing.
While the tour was a little expensive for what it was (220 Yuan – about 20 pounds), I was so glad that I did this tour – and would definitely recommend it.
Here are some pics:
View up to the wall on the climb to the top of the ridge:
View back down the trail:
Reaching the wall:
View from the top:
There's been a "wall" of some kind here since about the 5th century BC - but the wall seen today was built roughly between the 14th and 17th century BC during the Ming Dynasty. The experts reckon it's roughly about 5500 miles long (which is one heck of a wall), although rather interestingly they found a new bit just the other day. It's a rather amazing feat of engineering given the difficulty of the terrain it crosses and the sheer length.
Just one of the many annual visitors to the wall:
On the wall:
All along the watch tower:
All in all, it's just another brick in the...:
Stretching away to the distance for many more thousands of miles:
I also wanted to do a trip to see the mummified remains of Chairman Mao – my second mummified dictator of the trip...and as equally bizarre as seeing Uncle Ho in Vietnam. I actually got pretty lucky, as there were hardly any queues, and after dropping off my bag at the locker storage place, it took all of 30 minutes to get back and collect my bag again.
As you walk in through the main doors, it was really surprising (and a little shocking) to see Chinese people bowing down and offering flowers to a statue of Mao – in exactly the same way as people make offerings in the temples here.
There's definitely a personality cult going on (something which Mao actually encouraged). It really got me thinking that there's been such a long history of the Han Chinese being ruled by an Emperor. All Mao did was replace the last Emperor with himself, and effectively started the Communist Dynasty of China. People seem to venerate him here as a god – which is amazing given that less than 60 years ago he ordered the murder of millions of his own people.
I must admit – he was looking a bit pale – but I guess you can't expect too much when you've been dead for twenty odd years (and I don't know if it's me – but is there more than a passing resemblance to Doctor Evil from the Austin Powers films?).
It certainly leaves a very eerie and unsettling feeling as you walk back out into the sunshine.
Tienanmen Square - with the famous picture of Mao in the background:
The Mao Mausoleum:
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