Beijing, March 19, 2010

Today we had an epic journey to the Great Wall at Simatai. After walking around three bus/train stations and no-one able to take us to Mutianyu, we went to the long-distance bus station where a lovely lady told us Simatai was much better, much higher. She pointed us to the bus and we got on. It took us to Minyu, where it dropped us pretty much in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by taxi touts who insisted Simatai was 75km away. Not knowing where we were, we bargained with them, their spokesmen insisting the Lonely Planet is old, and fuel is 6 yuan a litre, until we agreen on about $63 for the round trip. We felt ripped off and little anxious in Mr Dong's car, but we had no real choice.
The wall was quite spectacular, and would have been very spectacular had the clouds cleared. At 1000m, we could see about 15m in front of us, often not knowing when the next watchtower was. The walk was steep, and the steps that annoying size when one at a time is too little but two at a time of too taxing. There was still snow, but luckily no wind. We saw maybe seven other couples on the three hour walk, which I think is rare for a Great Wall experience. It was nice to have some peace and quiet, so we could eat our jam sandwiches alone. The hawkers though were persistent. We had two ladies follow us about 500m, not very forgiving terrain, trying to sell us tacky souveneirs. We picked up the pace and used our big strides.
The walk was pretty hard at times and we managed a sweat even though it was freezing. Our imaginations also got a workout trying to picture the view. We gave our knees a rest on the way down a caught a 400m flying fox for $6. It looked dodgy, but there was a sign saying it was safety tested...didn't mention the year though. It lasted about 30 seconds, but was good fun - the lake below and the clouds above, and then a very pleasant walk back to the car park. A massive section of the lake was frozen - not even massive rocks that Phill threw (with ease) could break the surface. The pleasure boat service wasn't running.
Our driver, Mr Dong, was waiting where and when he said he would be, bless him, and we made the epic journey back to Miyun and then Beijing and our lovely warm hostel, and amazing spicy pizza bread, and hot showers, and tea, and laundry, and free internet for Phillip to download games to his I-phone.