Spectacular view of the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall
Some portions of the Wall, especially areas less touristy, remain in ruins
Approaching Simatai section of the Wall where it looks like the back of a dragon
View from a tower
A short cut had taken us through a small farming community.
A very simple farm had livestocks with goats, chickens, one horse, and donkeys.
Simatai section of the Great Wall looking back to where we had come from
My tired and aching feet
We woke up at 6am this morning to ride for 3 hours to the Great Wall of China from Beijing. The Great Wall is an impressive structure. We joined a tour that dropped us off at the Jinshanling section of the Wall to hike about 10km (I think about 6.2 miles and 4 hours) to the Simatai section of the wall. These are the least touristy area of the Great Wall because it is also the furthermost away from downtown Beijing. There were sections with very steep staircases (up and down) and very dangerous (some parts remain unrepaired and crumbling), not too different from the ones Frodo and Sam climbed on "Return of the King". We were exhausted! We actually had to take a short cut, led by some Hebei farmers/peddlers trying to sell us souvenirs (these Hebei farmers reminded us, then, of Gollum). The view along the hike was spectacular! We're taking a break from heavy sight-seeing tomorrow and have nothing planned but to look for a place to do laundry (apparently, these probably do not exist in the country...). Dinner tonight was Papa John's Pizza and corn flavored ice cream!
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