I've been to the Great Wall a couple of times, but this was unique and special. This day the Wall became "mine." Barry, Lea and I took got a taxi driver to take us to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall, then he departed to pick us up at the Simatai section of the Wall three hours later to take us back. This walk/hike took us through some restored sections and lots of untouched/crumbling sections. It was truly beautiful... loved seeing both the original and the refinished.
So here are some of the hundreds of pictures we took. Highly recommended to take this route rather than just "visiting" the Wall.
We didn't see any other tourists on the day we went. Very peaceful. But do you see the person in black behind me?
There are some locals who come on the wall to sell drinks/snacks. We were prepared and didn't need any of the offerings, but I had to buy something from this vendor. His half-frozen water (very nice) was $1.50/bottle. My instinct is to barter lower, but how could I with this person?
So instead, I offered him $3.00 for the water and some pictures with him!
Almost there... just down this hill, cross the bridge, and up some more steps to the Simatai base station...
Pretty cool to see the wall coming to an "end" for the river:
After three hours of stairs at a fairly-moderate pace, there's nothing like an ice-cold Coca-Cola... perfect!
Departing view from the Simatai section of the Great Wall.
LOVED IT!
2 comments:
you are amazing. Not only are you the world wide traveler but the one who actually sees what he loves.
THREE HOURS OF STAIRS????? You must have some little grandma calf-muscles by now. That's sick! The Coke even looked good to me after reading that. Thanks for the pics. BTW, congrats on your win against BYU!
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