I've just got back from just under 3 weeks away in China. Going to have a bit of a backwards post as this will be about the Great Wall which we did the morning after we landed.
The closest part of the Great Wall is a 1 hour 30 minute drive from Beijing up in the mountains, there's further parts that are up to 3 hours away. Really hard to get to via public transport so the best is to go on a guided coach tour or book a taxi to take you straight there. We got the hotel to book us a taxi as they have their own version of Uber where you can only book taxis via an app and pay using WeChat which we can't use being foreigners. We booked for the taxi to pick us up from the hotel at 7:30am and to wait for us to take us back at 2pm.
We booked to go to Badaling, which is the most popular with Chinese tourists. Only seen Chinese people there. The other one Mutianyu is popular with all tourists which is the other one we could have went to.
As we were driving towards the mountains we could see parts of it. The driver parked up then there's a shuttle bus that takes you up to the main entrance and ticket office.
When we left the hotel it was an alright day wasn't cold. Then when we got our the car it was freezing being in the mountains.
This is after getting off the shuttle bus...
Tickets were ¥35 = £4 and over 60s are free so super cheap but there was SO many people. Didn't help it being a Saturday morning but it's what they call low season so this is quiet.
Orignally we were following the crowd and went to the right which was the North side but my dad said go to the left the South side as there were less people. We didn't realise till after when we went to the information centre and got a leaflet that the South side we went to was shorter! So we should have just followed the crowd and continued going to the North side.
When the sun started to come out it got a lot warmer and looked so much better without the fog but the fog did make it look more mysterious and moody.
Some parts were really steep
Entrance and exit
Looks so much better in the sun! I've been telling everyone that I didn't think it was that amazing and was more amazed by the Acropolis in Athens which I went to August bank holiday. I think it's because it's just been preserved so well and doesn't look like it's thousands of years old and that millions of people have walked on it. Looking back at the photos now, I do appreciate it more as it is amazing how it's thousands of miles long built back in the day without any of the tools and technology we have today and all up in the mountains. The likes of the Acropolis is built on flat ground, there's no comparison. How it's still standing is amazing.
We walked the South side which is shorter with only 7 towers, if we walked the North there's 12 so it would have took longer as it only took us 2 hours and we got back to the taxi driver an hour earlier than we scheduled. There's meant to be a museum but it's shut over the winter in the low season which is crap. If I wasn't with my family and had the taxi driver waiting for us I definitely would have walked both sides. Didn't even hit 10,000 steps! it's mad that it's open all year round in all weathers. Definitely wouldn't want to be walking it in the rain or snow as it would be so slippy and dangerous. In the summer it would be too hot so we picked an alright time as it wasn't too cold then warmed up. Definitely need to wear comfy good shoes. There's also cable cars you can go but kind of feel like that defeats the point of walking the Great Wall.
I'm glad I can finally say I've walked The Great Wall of China and can tick it off the bucket list! 2/7 of the 7 wonders of the world ticked off.
I did say the last time I went to China in 2016 the only time I would go back was to go to the Great Wall.
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