Day 4-5 The Great Wall of China

Ni Hao! Dave, aka the beard, here! Saturday began with an early bus ride (6am!) to the Great Wall. After arriving at one of the basecamps (and walking through snow!) we began our ascent of the wall. 'Out of this World' is the only way to describe our walk along the wall that day. Despite the below freezing temperatures, the sun was out and the views were incredible. And they just kept getting better the higher we went! It was a pretty hard climb but well worth it in the end. We were the first Intrepid group to walk that section of the wall in winter and due to the temperature there was hardly any other tourists around, which made it even more special. After walking 10km along the wall we climbed down to an aerial runway station in the mountains (awesome fun!) which we took down to our youth hostel, where we were staying the night. Having been used to our posh hotel in Beijing we were a little shocked to find that the rooms had no heating or hot water (at first) and so we chucked on all our clothes and huddled in the restaurant to keep warm! We also found when we went to bed that night that the beds had no matresses, but instead had a blanket covering the bed slats!

Sunday began with the earliest start yet, as we had all decided the night before to get up at half 4 and climb the highest part of the wall to watch the sunrise at 7. However, no tourist group had done this before (nor had our guide!) and as the sun wasn't up we had to contend with temperatures of -7 C, pitch blackness and icy (almost vertical) walkways on what is reputed to be one of the most dangerous parts of the Great Wall!!! As cold as it was on the way up it was nothing compared to the temperature at the top! Once we reached the 12th tower (the highest point) we stopped to wait 50 minutes for the sun to rise, and during this time my hair froze solid and i had frost on my eyebrows! In an attempt to keep warm we all began playing a big game of Haki Sac to keep warm whilst the sun came up, which was a bit sureal! But the wait and the cold was worth it. There can't be many other places better than the Great Wall to see the sunrise! With the sun now beginning to warm us we headed back down the wall to the hostel where a (luke) warm shower and breakfast awaited us. After a 4 hour bus ride back to Beijing it was off for a quick bite to eat before heading to the station to board a 14 hour sleeper train to Xi'an!