Great Wall of China Walk - 12th-21st May 2007

Trip to China - Day 6 to End

2007-06-24T20:51:00.000+01:00

Day 6 - JinShanLing to SiMaTei

Another day with shadows we even created havoc and got the local police involved! It was then said that we wouldn't have shadows at all for the day and that we had to help each other, which was fine for most of us!

After our usual warm up, we started our journey towards SiMaTei which was going to be a little bit more touristy to our dispear: we would have to share 'our' Wall with more tourists!

We had to go through around 32 towers before we got to SiMaTei.

There again the scenery was amazing, you had more of an idea of what it was like then. There were some restored and unrestored sections which made this even more spectacular.

Once we arrived at the top, we had the option to walk down or to go on a zip slide for only 100Yuan which is around £8, most of us then did this and that was brilliant. I've never done anything like this before and once i relaxed a little bit, i really enjoyed it, as going above the lake was so peaceful and quiet, all you had to do was appreciate the moment!

At the bottom, we had a little journey on a very slow boat and then we could go into a hotel and have a drink.

We then got the bus back and headed off to Gubeikou to stay in the lovely hotel we had on day 4

Day 7 - MuTianYu

We were now heading for a little more section a little where we were likely to meet more tourists. Mainly Chinese i have to say but still tourists!!

We started that morning by walking on the road for a bit in the heat with no air. Everyone was suffering. I was ready to give up as my ankle and achille tendon were hurting but i was at one day to the end of the trek and didn't want to give up so decided to put headphones on and listen to something else to take me away from the pain! I ended up listening to some French humorist (Coluche) and some French music that had enough beat to keep me going as well! It was very steep and hot but we got to join the wall by lunch time and stay in one of the tower to relax and keep away from the sun!

The rest of the afternoon was more enjoyable and not as difficult!

We met few Chinese students who kept wanting to have their photos taken with us. They were asking in a near perfect English, quite impressive. We actually found out that they start learning English at a very young age (i think it was 3/4)

At the end of the walk, we had 3 differents ways to reach the bottom, Cable car, walking or Tobogan ride. As you can imagine, most people went for Tobogan ride. That was great fun apart from having to suddenly break because someone had created havoc by stopping where they shouldn't have but never mind, felt like a little kid enjoying a new toy! (no shame to admit it either!!)

Once we got to the end, we were able to go to a little market where of course the stall holder were very keen to sell us their products. A lot of bargaining took place. I was very good and bought nothing there!

After a refreshing ice-cream and a bit of shopping we went to a ceramic factory where they were using the "Cloisonne" method. Copper base, then small bits of copper are put on the container or jewellery, baked then colour is added and baked several time and to finish the product, gold plated is added.

We did a tour of the factory which helped us understand better the process.

After that we went to our hotel and had another celebration birthday!

Day 8 - JuYongGuan/ last trekking day!

Last day, we were all a bit sad as we knew that it was the end of the trek and we were soon going to go back to our lives. We all had a really great time together and spoke at least with everyone, even if not a lot being said or just a word of encouragement. From not knowing each other, we became in the space of 8 days a close group!

JuYongGuan is situated about 1h30mns from Beijing and is a very touristic place. This is a circular section of the wall one of the last ones. As it was our last walk and we did quite a lot, it was decided that we would only do an hour and therefore a semi circular section. When we arrived, we were a little frighten to see so many people on one side of the section. I think we would have felt a little clostrophobic! but luckily we were going to trek on the opposite side where there were less tourists.

After an hour, we all had to wear our China Trek t-shirt for the final bit! We had to go down some stairs, doing the conga! and then our finishing line (our Chinese guides were waiting for us with a China Trek t-shirt and one with 'I climbed the Great Wall') Everyone found the strength and the energy to run up the steepish stair to get sprayed with Chinese "Champagne" which was actually cider!

We were all proud of ourselves and what we had just achieved.

We then went on doing group photos and charity group photos and as we had done everything, it started to rain slightly heavily. We had been lucky so far but it was as if they'd been waiting for us to finish!

We headed us to the bus which was going to take us to a Jade and a Silk factories. Again we got to see how it was done and also spend a lot of money, not too bad in pounds though!!

We, then headed back to hotel to get ready for celebration dinner and pack our bags ready for the next morning in case we intended to stay up all night!

We had Peking duck and i have to say it isn't at all what we get in UK. It was Duck breast instead of crispy duck. It was so tender that i could have eaten everything or even just that but had to share!

After dinner some people were going to have a massage done down town. I was going to go but decided not to after we got stuck in traffic for about an 1 and knowing the massage would last 1hour and half, i decided to go party with the others!

We had a very good time out and stay out nearly all night, only had an hour kip but in a way that was good as would be able to catch up on the plane!

Day 9 - Going back home!

We had a very early start which was quite hard after only an hour sleep, luckily i was not hungover that would have been worse. I didn't really hang around the breakfast buffet and didn't want to face looking at some very odd dishes!!

We said goodbye to the people staying on and went to the airport.

We were all sad having to leave and to cheer us up, we were already talking about our reunion and the kind of things we would want to do! It looks like we are going to be doing Hadrian's wall next!!

After a long journey, we finally got to London and then back to normal life!

I believe that i will cherish this trip for the rest of my life. I had such an amazing time and saw some very beautiful scenery but mainly met some great people and that is also what made the trip so special.

-THE END-

My trip in China - Day 1 to Day 5

2007-06-05T12:54:00.000+01:00

Day 1 - In China

After mostly a day of travelling, we finally arrive in Beijing airport (pic on right) around 8am only to be told that we were not allowed to go to the hotel before 6pm that night! Everyone was of course over the moon, not! The reason was, hotel was holding a Governmental Conference so very tight security!

This was giving us plenty of time to do some sight seeing! Starting with Tian'an Men Square. This is a very huge square which can hold millions of people but we were lucky we had it nearly to ourselves!! Well there were few Chinese people around and we were finding that we were the tourist attraction...

We then made our way to the Forbidden City and went under the very big portrait of Mao, hanging at the entrance of the City. We discovered that this is a real painting that is changed every year and it actually takes the artist a year to paint!! Quite impressive!

A lot of the buildings were being renovated in order to be ready for the Olympic Games or more the tourism that this will bring China and Beijing! We manage to see some of the rooms being used by the Emperors and the very last Emperess (she used to hide behind a curtain and tell the Emperor what he had to say!! middle pic) It was quite interesting to see the settings of the rooms and also the colours and jade and ceramic object left there.

After a very hot and exhausting morning, we went to have our first Chinese lunch and also experienced the joy of the Chinese lavatory and plumbing system! We also regrouped with the other part of the group who arrived on a later flight (they were going to stay a little bit longer in China after the trek) Lunch wasn't bad, sometimes similar to Chinese takeaway we could find in the UK so no nasty surprise! We then headed of to the Summer Palace which was a Palace that one of the Chinese Emperor built in order to honour his mother's 60th Birthday. It took around 15 years if i remember correctly to build (not only the palace but the surroundings, ie lake, hills etc..) Very beautiful views there and a lot of wind which helped cools us down a little bit!

The gardens were very peaceful and it was quite interesting to see how some of the buildings were decorated.

We also had a little boat trip to go the other side of the lake

We then headed of for dinner and finally to the hotel so we could get a well deserved sleep before heading off the next day to our first section of the Wall!! Before reaching the hotel, we had the opportunity to see the new Olympic Stadium:

Day 2 - TaiPingZhai - Start of the trek!

This is it! We all got up fairly early to be ready to leave and get reach our first section of the wall before lunch time. We had about 3 hours bus transfer. Before that we had a very interesting breakfast menu, egg fried rice, mange tout, cabbage but luckily sponge base, boiled egg, brioche type bread as not quite ready to face this type of food at 7 in the morning!

We were due to leave at 8am but were slighlty delayed as the hotel was missing a hand towel (nothing extraordinary about the towel) and a pillow case!! We were not allowed to leave until they were found! Bit of excitement for the real first day! The hotel staff new from which room it was missing and therefore the culprit had to go through their luggage, fortunately for us, they had overslept and missed the luggage van so their luggage was on the buses so didn't take too long to find the missing towel!

We were then able to drive out of Beijing and head East towards Huangyguan

Most people fell asleep but others admired the view or chatted to each other, guess which option i opted for?!!

After few hours and looking at some of China's reservoirs, we finally could distinguish what we will be admiring for the next 8 days to come, the Wall. We were getting close..

We finally arrive at the guest house where we were going to stay that night but first we had lunch and were very pleased to see that our hosts had adapted the menu especially for us!! We got Chips and tomato sauce amongst other dishes of course!! only drawback, we had to eat them with the chopsticks but we succeeded!! After our briefing and a short bus journey, we finally arrived at the entrance of the Wall!!

Here i am ready to ascend, suffer, enjoy the scenery etc...

We then started and here are some of the scenery:

We went up and up and then we went down, but we didn't all fall down (only a couple of people did, luckily not too much harm down, just huge bruises)

This was our first day, a gentle 2 hours walk... We then went back to the guest house and got ready for dinner, camp fire and birtday cake! One of the lady having her birthday during the trek but the tour leaders had to remind her of it! We helped her celebrate a very big but delicious birthday cake. We also found out that in China as a birthday treat, you get a bowl of noodles, egg, tomato together and this will help prolonged the longevity!

Day 3 - HuangYaGuan

We again had an early start and this was going to be our longest day of treking, we were going to do 25kms and walk some very steep stairs by climbing Heaven's ladder (there were 301 steps to be precise!) The weather was good and not too hot so it was a little bit nicer to walk

It was a really hard day but once you'd reached "Heaven", you had forgotten about the pain and the trouble you may have had getting there!

Will remember few things from that day, first an old grandpa running the stairs whilst we are all struggling (see pic). Then young Chinese students climbing the stairs with their uniforms and very unappropriate footwear: flip flops, sandals and pop socks! and finally a lady with her warm red coat carrying what was like a fridge on her back. It was impossible for 1 guy to lift it by himself. She was there on two occasions to sell cold drinks and of course t-shirts, postcards etc... she was there with a bag full of money Yuan and US dollars quite funny to see.. (see pic)

It was a very long day but a very enjoyable one, full of laughter and of course some very spectacular views! Also we got to walk on part of the Wall that had not been renovated so it was even more impressive!

That night we stayed in a farm in a mountain village and had the joy of being 5 in a room! Once again enjoyed a bonfire!

Day 4 - QianGanJian to GuBeiKou

We were going to go for a short walk in the morning on the Wall before going back to the coach few hours away from the village (coaches didn't have access as the road were not good enough really!)

We therefore walked to a platform where you can see 3 differents counties, one of them being Beijing!! (see pic of stone)

After that the group split for the ones that wanted to do a little extension, which of course i did!

We then joined the farm and started our walk down to the coach. We stop along the way and found some kids games so big kids we all were, we had a go!

Once we joined the coach, we had another 2 hours drive to our next destination Gubeikou.

To our surprise, we arrived to a very nice hotel with a lovely garden, traditional and with a lot of character. Every body had made the effort to dress up a little bit and was looking very nice. We all enjoyed it and had the pleasure to sing Karaoke (quite interesting!) and enjoy some Chinese Red Wine (only for some!) ...

This was a fairly late but enjoyable night and this will stay with us for a fairly long time!!

Day 5 - GuBeiKou - JinShanLing

That day was another long day but also a hard one as we had to walk on very narrow lane (old part of the wall, unrestored) and we were being accompanied by our "shadows"! Just before leaving the hotel in the morning, we had around 50 Mongolian farmers waiting for us outside. They were going to be following us all the way to Jinshanling and help us if we needed. We could not have them but it was very difficult to get rid of them or more ignore them as we were told to do!

I tried but didn't work, i did manage though to let my shadow know that i didn't need her couple of times as she was more of a danger to me than a help! Nearly bang my knee on stones. But when i could have done with her help, she was nowhere to be seen!! never mind, i managed, on my own!!

The day was very windy and covered but we had a very beautiful scenery to make us forget about it all. It was hard but all worth it!

Once we got to Jinshanling, we had to show our appreciation to our shadow by buying some souvenirs. You felt you had to in a way even if they didn't help that much. But once you bought something, they were coming back for more and behaving like children if you were not going to buy more. They were also telling us they would wait for us the next day if we wanted but i made sure she knew that i didn't need her and that she didn't need to bother!

Wooah!!

2007-05-24T17:47:00.000+01:00

What an experience that was! I loved every minute of it even the most difficult parts because i did it!! I have now to go through my photos, around 500 of them, before i can put them online for you all to see. I will make sure i do this fairly quickly as i may forget what we did! Thank you everyone for your support, help and generosity. Love Christelle xx

Last day ...

2007-05-11T17:00:00.000+01:00

Today is my last day before i go to China and carrying on with my crazy ideas, i decided to do my red letter day and go for a high speed thrill! So i went to Thruxton and drove a Porsche Cayman and drove for 4 laps! That was actually fun but was fairly nervous and was getting more confident during the last lap. I ended up with a score of 70% which i thought was quite honorable!! Anyway i now have to do the final preparation before i have a taxi picking me up at 4.45am tomorrow! Won't be able to keep you updated as i go along but watch this space on my return... Love x

D-Day is very near...

2007-05-07T19:51:00.000+01:00

Only 5 days to go and can't get my head round it. I will soon be walking on the great wall of china and I have all kinds of emotions running through my head!! Mainly excitement though. Itinerary below so you can follow me on my journey! Watch this space for another message before i go and then lots of photos when i come back Thank you again everyone Christelle xxx

Itinerary

2007-05-06T17:47:00.000+01:00

Day 1
Depart London Heathrow for Beijing.
Day 2
Beijing Arrive Beijing during the morning, where depending on our arrival time there may be time to take a city tour and visit the fabulous Forbidden City. On arrival at our city hotel we can freshen up and relax.There will be a full tour briefing in the evening.
Day 3
Beijing - Huangyaguan We transfer this morning from Beijing to above Huangyaguan (3.5-4.5 hours) where we get our first glimpse of the Great Wall as it snakes along the ridgeline of the Yanshan Mountains.The wall is well renovated here and it disappears off on both horizons.We walk predominantly downhill along the Taipingzhai Section until we reach the small town of Huangyaguan. Here the wall crosses the road that leads to our nearby accommodation. Approx 2 / 3 hours walking
Day 4
Huangyaguan - Mountain Village Huangyaguan is situated in a beautiful valley in the heart of the Yanshan Mountains.We start our day's walk heading up the steep renovated steps towards what appears to be a sheer cliff face.This is where we encounter "Heavens Ladder", a steep climb of over 200 steps leading us up the cliff face. Once we have caught our breath the path continues gradually up to the top of the ridge and once again the old wall, which follows the contours of the mountain.We drop down into the neighbouring valley and clamber along the wall as it gradually descends to the valley below.We bed down in the houses of a local village, a real cultural experience. Approx 7 hours walking
Day 5
Village - Jinshanlin Beyond the village where we sleep, the wall snakes its way across a wild and sweeping landscape steeped in history. Unfortunately, from here we are unable to follow the wall as it is in a state of decay and the rough old stones are loose and unstable. So,we take old, steep farmers' tracks up to the wall for great photos, tracing the contours of the hills.We then descend and make our way out of the village along a valley of fertile to our waiting transport that will take us to Jinshanlin. Approx 4 hours walking
Day 6
Gubeiko - Jinshanlin A quick 20-minute hop in the bus takes us to our start point just outside the village of Gubeiko.The day starts with the luxury of a gentle meander alongside an unrestored yet well-preserved section of the Wall. It appears to be of an almost brick-like construction here.This part dates back to the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty to rule over this vast land.We wander down into the valley in order to skirt a Chinese military post before rejoining the wall for the final stretch up and along to Jinshanlin. A short walk takes us to our simple cabins for the night. Approx 7 - 8 hours walking
Day 7
Jinshanlin - Simatei Today's stunning walk on this largely restored section takes us from Jinshanlin to Simatei. Starting where we left off yesterday,we head up the carefully restored steps which take us up into the mountains one final time.The scenery is superb with rolling purple hills fading into the distance.We leave the Great Wall at Simatei, enjoying the view as it clings precariously to the rock face opposite; classic 'scales on a dragon's back scenery.We finish the day with the opportunity to zip slide across the lake and then catch a small boat ride back across to our accommodation. If you prefer not to zip slide it is an easy 30 minute walk down. Approx 6 hours walking
Day 8
Simatei - Mutianyu This morning we must first make a bus transfer (3 hrs) from our hotel at Simatei to Mutianyu Great Wall.The trek itself starts with a climb up the side of a hill for us to gain access to the wall, which is very well restored. Once more our efforts are rewarded by stunning views as the wall disappears off in either direction.We continue along the wall to the right before descending down to our hotel at Mutianyu.There is an opportunity to do some haggling in the markets before you reach the hotel, so carry some money with you for this. Approx 4 - 5 hours walking
Day 9
Mutianyu - Juyongguan After a transfer (2-3 hrs), our final day's walk takes us on a circuit of the restored wall at Juyongguan.The wall undulates across the rolling spine of hills offering spectacular views of areas where warriors once fought. All too soon the trek is over and we must leave the wall and return to Beijing.Our senses will be unprepared as we enter the bustling capital and experience its frenetic energy, quite a contrast after the natural scenery and remote tranquillity of the past few days. After checking into our hotel,we have time to freshen up before the evening celebration meal. Approx 4 hours walking
Day 10 Flight back to London. Arrive London Heathrow at 20.20 in the evening