It really is Great

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Woke up early to brave the cold and see a section of the Great Wall.

Laura found a travel agency that had NO SHOPPING tours of the Great Wal (greatwalltour.cn). The no shopping part was important because we didnt want to waste time getting walked through a market or jewelry shop.

The guide snagged us from our hotel lobby at 0720, and walked us to the bus, which we rode till the outskirts of the city, then we transferred to a much smaller 10 seat bus for the rest of the trip. From this area to the Mutianyu section of the wall was about a 90 minute drive, we slept through most of it so we dont remember what was going on.


we went to this section that is well maintained. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutianyu


I mentioned it was cold, the temperature dropped over night, and the almost freezing drizzle turned into snow. By the time we woke up it was done snowing, but there was a dusting everywhere.

When we finally got to the Great Wall our little group on the microbus met with a larger group on a tour bus and we started heading up the mountains to the Wall.

We walked up some of the way, was shown to our lunch location, and given a no-later-than time to make lunch and the bus home, walked further up the hill and shown the cable car or hike up to the Wall.

This section of the wall is on a mountain crest, a very easily defended position. Cimbing a mountain with an Army and attaking a 5m tall wall that extends forever in each direction would not be easy, I believe this portion of the wall was less about defense of the State, and more about ease of transit and communication into the western provinces to/from the capital.

Anyways the cable car takes you up the mountain, and takes you to Tower 14. Along the wall, there are guardhouses every few hundred meters, on this section they are numbered 1-20. 20 is at the top of the crest, and i dont know where 1 is, because i didnt see it.

The tour guide recommended you turn left upin getting onto the wall, and heading to 20, from 14, and that would take about an hour, and then take your pictures, and walk back, taking another hour to come back.

When we got to the wall, there was a huge gaggle of people on the stairs leading to the actual wall top. When we fought our way up we saw why; ice. The wet snowy weather led to this area being slick with ice, and given the incline at that point, everyone was afraid to move.

looking left, towards 20, was a decline of at least 20 degrees, slick with ice for at least 15 meters, to the right was an incline of about 10 degrees, slick with ice for about 5 meters.

Laura was hesitant to go either direction, i was determined to walk the Wall, we travelled many thousands of miles to see this, we were gunna make the best of it.

There is a path that parallels the wall for most of its course, this path is frequently lacking a railing, and made of paving stones that were in pretty poor shape, from our vantage I had no way of determining if that path would get us back onto the Wall, looking at that decline, there was no way we would make it back up that length on the wall. So we went right. We hugged the wall, and used the gaps in the flagstones to climb through the icy spot, and made our way.

We walked all the way to Tower 6, at some points bouldering along the wall, Laura slipped at one point, but caught herself, scrapping her wrist a little, and i fell on my ass and slid about 3 meters, but we got there and back with all our fingers and toes, and some excellent pictures.

We took the cable car back down the hill for lunch. There we met up with some of the other people on the tour, a girl from Calgary (who made a terrible clothing decision, her primary trip was to Thailand, so she packed for Thailand, took an extended layover in Beijing and decided to check out the Great Wall of China, on top of a mountain, on the first wintry day in China), a guy from New York, a probably* businessman/diplomats daughter, a couple from Caracas, and a French Businessman. Chatting was nice about travels and what we have already seen and what we plan to do here in Beijing and China at large.

The food was acceptable, again if i wasnt kkeeping my diary on a blog, it was nothing to write home about. it honestly tasted alot like the shitty chinese food we have back home. it was good, but nothing spectacularly flavored or interesting.

The microbus took us home, we slept through the ride again, this time it dropped us off at a subway stop because traffic was so bad.

We once again ran into the Calgarian and New Yorkite, helped the canuck get to the airport as she was a little turned around. The train took us home easy, but we did get almost mildly kidnapped. As we were leaving the train, some lady heard us speaking english, and said wwe speak beautiful english, asking us where we were from, telling us she was from some other province of china on holiday, and loves practicing her english, she invited us to her favorite coffee shop to talk in english. obviously this is a bad idea, stranger danger n all, but Laura read about this scam in her prep for the trip. Apparently these people invite you to their favorite teashop, that is usually someplace youv never been, and has a friendly, large doorman. And the tea is many hundreds of Yuan, and you cannot leave without paying, because the doorman is large, and doesnt speak english, but knows you didnt pay...

researching dinner led us to a Peking Duck place near our hotel (Siji Minfu), with views of the Forbidden City. Getting to it was a little harrowing, it was nearby, but we had to navigate the hutong that surrounds our hotel, and then walk down a near completely empty street. After traversing all this East Asian capitals, being on an empty street was unnerving.

The restaurant had a very small frontage on the street, but it was a long swanky looking hallway, that took us to the restaurant proper. The Hostess walked us past the big wood ovens in which the ducks get roasted, and seated us with a view of the Forbidden City moat and wall.

The menu had a full list of stuff to eat, and index of professionally photographed examples of each. We ordered sauteed greens, which turned out to be lil baby bokchoy (the size of brussel sprouts) stuffed with a clove of garlic each, tossed in chili oil.

And of course the duck, we got a half duck, with all the fixins. The condiments came out first, it was a little platter with hoisen sauce, minced garlic, onion slices, cucumber slices, pink pickled things (which we have seen all over since Japan) green pickled stuff (again familiar, but no idea what it is), a pile of sugar and a palette cleansing fruit slice. Then came the pancakes, and finally the duck, on a plate that was set on top of a catering candle.

The staff correctly identified we had no idea what we were doing, and showed us. First you peel the pancakes apart, they are paper thin, then you put it on your plate, you grab a duck slice, dip in hoisen, place on the pancakes, then put whatever condiments you want on there, fold it up, and eat it. My goodness were these pockets of duck delicious, it wasnt greasy like duck usually is, it wasnt smothered in spices, all of the flavors compliments eachother, it was great. The sugar as we learned, is for dipping the duck skin in, which is also exquisite.

but, given the well deserved fatastic reviews of the roast duck, this wasnt even the best food they served. they had duck liver paste. I initially read it as “patte” laura corrected me, and we ordered it anyways.

This duck liver paste, beats out those green beans from the day before, in fact, it beats out just about everyhthing short of those DanDan noodles in Ueno.

I have never had a patte so creamy, it was like butter, duck flavored butter. But not overpowering like liver usually is. it was just subtle, savory, scrumptious spreadable duck on little squares of toast.

Very Very satisfied with dinner, we hurried out of the cold into our bed to fall asleep watching whatever was on HBO.


*given her life story, i gathered she is the daughter of a businessman or diplomat, no one is ethnically Columbian, grew up and identifies as Dutch, lived in London for a year, and has been on an extended trip to India, now on an extended trip to China SE Asia