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Exploring the known and unknown
Day 43
2 June 2013
The Great Wall
The best way to visit some places is to book a tour. Just relax and enjoy the ride. This one included breakfast and lunch as well. A mini bus picked two other travelers and me up at 8 am for the two hour drive to Mutianyu, north of Beijing. The Chinese wall was built over two thousand years ago and runs from Liaoning province all the way to the Goby dessert. They actually started the build the wall in sections around 220 BC
Originally the wall constructed to keep the Mongols out out of China. Over the last 500 years the wall slowly fell into disrepair. Several sections have been rebuilt to show the nation and tourist what the wall was like. Several places can be visited where access to the restored wall is possible. My expectation was that you could easily get to, and negotiated the wall, but this was not the case. First of all the nearest wall is about 70 km away from the centre of Beijing. As the wall is constructed on the top of the mountain ridges you then face either a very long climb or a cable car. My destination was Mutianyu , about 90 km north of Beijing in Huairou country. The section of the wall has 26 watch towers.
Instead of a smooth walk I faced a very steep climb like walking stairs with very large steps and very steep inclination. At the end of the restored section there is a sign stating not to go any further on the un-restored section but this is ignored by most people including me. Actually I found this the most interesting parts. The watchtowers are half crumbled away, as are some parts of the wall. You can actually cross a whole valley walking the un-restored wall.
I leave it at this and let the pictures tell the story.
2 June 2013
The Great Wall
The best way to visit some places is to book a tour. Just relax and enjoy the ride. This one included breakfast and lunch as well. A mini bus picked two other travelers and me up at 8 am for the two hour drive to Mutianyu, north of Beijing. The Chinese wall was built over two thousand years ago and runs from Liaoning province all the way to the Goby dessert. They actually started the build the wall in sections around 220 BC
Originally the wall constructed to keep the Mongols out out of China. Over the last 500 years the wall slowly fell into disrepair. Several sections have been rebuilt to show the nation and tourist what the wall was like. Several places can be visited where access to the restored wall is possible. My expectation was that you could easily get to, and negotiated the wall, but this was not the case. First of all the nearest wall is about 70 km away from the centre of Beijing. As the wall is constructed on the top of the mountain ridges you then face either a very long climb or a cable car. My destination was Mutianyu , about 90 km north of Beijing in Huairou country. The section of the wall has 26 watch towers.
Instead of a smooth walk I faced a very steep climb like walking stairs with very large steps and very steep inclination. At the end of the restored section there is a sign stating not to go any further on the un-restored section but this is ignored by most people including me. Actually I found this the most interesting parts. The watchtowers are half crumbled away, as are some parts of the wall. You can actually cross a whole valley walking the un-restored wall.
I leave it at this and let the pictures tell the story.
- comments
[email protected] Hi Rich. Ik ben hier ook geweest. Very impressive. Ik ben tot de eerste tower gegaan, het was aardig stijl en very hot. A big job om al die towers aan te vullen met food and weapens.Om dit te doen werden er donkeys gebruikt. Knap stukkie werk om zo,n muur te bouwen. Tot kijk maar weer. Gr van je beroer. Dag jongen.