The most famous element around Beijing stays the Great Wall… The trip to
there (some 80 km’s out of town) we spent with Pablo – our couch from
Shanghai, Miguel and Valeria (a couple Pablo also invited) to explore that
location. We made a very steep climb up to the Mutianjou restored section.
After two hours intensive climbing we got on the wall (since we missed the
right road to get up, normally it takes only some 45′).

But as soon as we reach the wall, the long way up is forgotten! What a
view, what an experience. Like a snake-like creature the wall crawls along
hilltops and over steep slopes. The countless stairs bring us to new
viewpoints, at a certain moment we even reach the end of the restored wall
section. From there we crawl over boulders and along ruined watch towers,
but it gives a good impression of which huge job the restorers have…

I descend the wall together with Pablo along a high speed slide, while Ilse
and the two others take the cableway. This takes only minutes instead of
the hours uphill. What a difference. But this was really one of the top
attractions in Beijing!

We ended that topday in a restaurant eating the famous ‘Peking Duck’, after
we’ve been thrown out the first restaurant – with astronomical prices and a
strange looking ‘friend of the manager’ – with the words ‘we don’t serve
crazy people’.

But the saying ‘no money, no honey’ goes up here as soon as they see you
won’t buy anything at all… Gone smile, gone friendliness, gone empathy…
Just make sure you’re asap gone!