Saturday, June 13th - Beijing to Xi An

This morning we had to pack up our bags and check out after breakfast, although our bags were staying behind.  At 8:30 we got in our van for the day and made a 1.5 hour drive, which turned out to be more like a 2 hour drive, to Mutianyu.   Here we had several choices: hike up and back from the great wall, take the gondola up and back, or take the chair lift up and the toboggan back.  We all chose the later and the chair lift up offered us great views of the local mountains, the Great Wall and the surrounding country side.

We entered the Great Wall between gates 5 and 6, and started climbing upward.  The goal was to reach gate 23, the highest point in this stretch of the wall.  Personally, I made it almost to gate 14 before I turned around but I wasn't the first one to turn back. My trek up took 1.25 hours and I knew it would take about that long to get back down because I was hot and tired and my legs were starting to feel like rubber.  Three of the group did manage to get all the way to gate 23, which was really impressive.  The farther you went the steeper it got so it was no easy trek for them.

This section of the Great Wall is absolutely beautiful  The wall itself is impressive and the surrounding mountains and valleys were very green and lush.  The Wall itself is quite wide and for most of it the steps, although uneven in height and width throughout, are basically intact and easy to walk on.  The other section of the Wall that I visited in 2010 was much harder to climb as the steps were broken and uneven, and because there were so many tourists that at times you could hardly move, especially in the narrow sections.  Today's section was much more enjoyable in so many ways.  And we once again had beautiful hot sunny weather.  I confess that at times I was hoping for a cloud or two overhead.  The one saving grace was the wonderful cool wind that was blowing, especially strong in the many watch towers along the way as the wind funnelled through the windows.  I'm sure the soldiers stationed here appreciated the wind in the hot summer but it must have been incredibly cold in the winter.

The Great Wall truly is amazing.  It is hard to imagine how they built it in the first place over 2200 years ago.  Then it's equally amazing to think of the length of it - some 6600 km I believe, and know that it was the line of defence for an entire country.  The history that goes with it must be remarkable, and today it is still a truly unique treasure.  It should definitely be on everyone's bucket list.

After our hike we were to toboggan back down to the parking lot on a long, steep, winding toboggan slide.  Unfortunately it wasn't quite as exciting as we were all anticiapating.  First, insult of all insults, the guys at the top decided that some members of our group were too old to do such a ride and they banned them from going so they had to take the cable car back down.  And yes, I was one of them.  The rest of the group did take the ride but they were all disappointed because they had to keep applying the brakes and going really slow because some people were holding everyone else up.  It really was quite amazing to watch from the cable car on the way down.  One lady had the brakes on the whole way and had a long line up crawling along behind her.  Another man with a young child in front of him (and these really are small tobaggans!) was holding up the next group.  Oh well, I must say that those of us who didn't get to go, didn't have a lot of sympathy for any of them.  

When we were all down the hill we went to Subway for lunch.  Yes, that same Subway that we have in Canada, is right there at one of the largest tourist attractions in China.  By the time we got down it was well after 2 so we really did have to eat, regardless of the choices.  After lunch we drove back to our hotel in Beijing and had 15 minutes to gather our luggage and have a bathroom break before heading off to the railroad station.  There we grabbed dinner and snacks for our overnight train to Xi An.  

The train left promptly at 6:50 as scheduled.  We found our sleeping compartments and settled in - not an easy task with 6 bunks (3 on each side) and lots of luggage to store under the bottom bunks or in the overhead rack in the aisle.  And of course we all needed something out of everything.  I lucked out and got a bottom bunk.  Gillian and Tina are above me.  Margaret is across from me with Millie and Liam above her.  Randy and Richard are in the next compartment.  We spent the evening eating and chatting and the time went very quickly before it was lights out at 10 p.m.   Right now I think everyone else is asleep (or trying) while I sit on my bunk typing.  I will have to turn this off soon though because I imagine sleep will only come in fits and starts as we rumble along and stop about once an hour to take on more people or let some off.  In case you're wondering, we're just all sleeping in the clothes we wore today while hiking on the Wall.  We figure we all smell pretty bad so we won't offend each other.  And if we don't get into our hotel first thing in the morning, we'll all be seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors in the same state.  What fun!

All in all it was another great day, and with the expectation of more to come.