After being stared at and shoved about in Beijing it was good to know that we were off to a lesser visited, more remote area to walk the world famous Great Wall of China. The main area that draws the tourists in their millions each year is Badaling which is kind of your Disney world of the Great wall where it has been completely restored with shiny new brickwork and pointing with more souvenir stands than you could shake your "authentic" carved great wall walking stick at.

We were headed some 120km North East of Beijing to Jinshanling where we were to be walking approximately 4 hours along the wall to Simatai. The Simatai Great Wall is 15.4 km long with 35 beacon towers. This section of the over 6000km long wall Great Wall incorporates the different characteristics of each section of the Great Wall. A specialist on the Great Wall, Professor Luo Zhewen, has said "The Great Wall is the best of the Chinese buildings, and Simatai is the best of the Great Wall." So we were looking forward to seeing not only great and unspoilt views of the wall and surrounding countryside but as it was away from the madding crowd we were hoping to have the wall almost to ourselves.

As we started our walk up to the wall itself we were soon surrounded by our new "friends" in the form of some Mongolian farmers who wanted to sell you the obligatory postcards, cold drinks, t-shirts and cigarettes. I was having a conversation with my friend and Katie seemed to have been befriended what best can be described as the old crone. After about 5 minutes my "friend" decided that she didn't like me anymore as I was not going to buy anything from her and soon left my side but Katie's crone was not as easy to shake. Even as we got onto the wall with our guide and everyone else was left to fend for themselves this old woman was stoically following Katie wanting to help her up the steps, carry her bag, sell her water or wanting to sell us photos of the wall that we could quite easily take ourselves if we were just left alone in peace!

We started our walk up the wall through the watchtowers (which tend to be at a change in either direction or pitch of the wall) and the views were outstanding. Looking into the distance you can see the wall snaking along following the knife edge ridge of the mountains as far as the eye can see. There were perfect views into the valleys bellow and of course there was still the crone. After about 5 watchtowers I looked around to see where Katie was and to my surprise she was alone. I first thought that she had had enough of the constant sales pitches and "you my friend" from the old woman and had launched her over the side of the wall but apparently she went without a fuss and just stopped at one of the watchtowers probably to wait for the next unsuspecting trekkers.

During 550-575AD when this part of the wall was being constructed goats played an important role in building this section on such precarious mountain ridge, with each goat carrying a single brick to the top on each trip. Ironically, goats also played an equally important role in its destruction centuries later after its construction. Peasants residing near the site raised goats to generate extra income, and the goats eat the vegetation that protects the soil around the wall from erosion. In places where the erosion caused the sides of the wall to fall it had been patched up to allow us to continue along the walkways at the top through the slowly deteriorating watchtowers. The walking along the wall ranged from a nice stroll up and down shallow gradients to a scramble up and down broken and crumbling parts of the wall.

About half way along the tiny section of wall we were to be walking it was time to break for a well earned lunch and as we sat ourselves in one of the nooks we got a rare chance in China to experience almost total silence. This was soon broken after our lunch when Katie spotted a huge fluttering Norwegian flag being carried by a huge but not so fluttering Norwegian man. Also in tow with his group was some other equally flag bedecked Norwegians singing loudly and generally waving their country pennants high. We could not miss an opportunity like this to grab a photo with Katies half-countrymen and it turned out that they were from the same town as Katies grandma. I immediately assumed that they must be on some sort of sponsored race or inter country challenge due to the fact that everything they were wearing was either made from or the same colour as the Norweigan flag but no, they were just stereotypically patriotic. We left them to their sing song on the wall and went back to our trek trying to find that peace and quiet again!

The afternoon trek took us up and down on the wall through more watchtowers until we came to one of the rare breaks in the wall where the river divides the Simatai section into its Eastern and Western parts. We crossed the suspension bridge to get over to the other side of the river and continued up the other side to the point where the wall is closed to the public due to safety reasons. It was here that our trek ended and we could look back along the wall into the distance and see where we had come from and think about how lucky we were to come out to a lesser visited area of the Great Wall as all we took away from the experience were memories of peace, tranquillity and amazing vistas rather than being jostled and pushed with the tourist masses at Badaling.