Rather than go with a group tour, we decided to hire a private taxi and head to the wall on our own. Between the cars, trucks, scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians, Beijing traffic is a like a pile of worms - everyone trying to get to the top of the heap and crawling right over the other guy. Our driver, Mr. Lee, was clearly an old pro as he was able to squeeze through spaces I thought impossible.
On the advice of the concierge, we chose to go to the Mutianyu section of the wall northeast of Beijing. This section of the wall has been carefully restored and ranges in height from 23-26 feet and is 14-16 feet wide. We arrived at the top of the wall via chairlift.
The surrounding area reminded me a little of Colorado - it's mountainous and smells of pine.
As the wall is built to follow the contour of the mountain, it can be very steep. The men who manned the wall must have been part mountain goat with lungs of steel. We were perfectly content to visit only three watchtowers. It would be a badge of honor to traverse the wall and visit all 22 towers on this section. I am not that much of a masochist. My fitness tracker recorded 26 "flights" as we walked the wall, and we earned every flight.
The trip to Mutianyu took up most of the day. When we got back to Beijing we were hungry so we tracked down some ramen for lunch. My pork ramen was delicious and cost less than $6.
After the long day in the heat, the jet lag caught up to us and we have crashed for the evening. We'll be back at it tomorrow - good night!
Note: I'm having some issues adding photos to my posts on my iPad. I'm giving up on editing the HTML for now and will just add them at the bottom. When I get home, I'll pretty up the formatting, but for now, this is what you get!
On the advice of the concierge, we chose to go to the Mutianyu section of the wall northeast of Beijing. This section of the wall has been carefully restored and ranges in height from 23-26 feet and is 14-16 feet wide. We arrived at the top of the wall via chairlift.
As the wall is built to follow the contour of the mountain, it can be very steep. The men who manned the wall must have been part mountain goat with lungs of steel. We were perfectly content to visit only three watchtowers. It would be a badge of honor to traverse the wall and visit all 22 towers on this section. I am not that much of a masochist. My fitness tracker recorded 26 "flights" as we walked the wall, and we earned every flight.
The trip to Mutianyu took up most of the day. When we got back to Beijing we were hungry so we tracked down some ramen for lunch. My pork ramen was delicious and cost less than $6.
After the long day in the heat, the jet lag caught up to us and we have crashed for the evening. We'll be back at it tomorrow - good night!
Note: I'm having some issues adding photos to my posts on my iPad. I'm giving up on editing the HTML for now and will just add them at the bottom. When I get home, I'll pretty up the formatting, but for now, this is what you get!
what kind of soup is that?
ReplyDeleteIt was pork ramen. Noodles, pork, bamboo shots. Very tasty.
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