Day 2 - The Great Wall of China


We had another fairly early morning. I woke up around 4 am and was wide awake. Since I couldn’t go back to sleep I sorted and edited our pictures from yesterday until Alison woke up. When she was awake we completed our morning yoga, got ready for the day, and ate breakfast.

Our guide met us in the hotel lobby at 8:30am and we got into our car and drove to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Our tour goes to this section because it is typically less crowded than other areas of the wall.

It was about a two-hour drive to get to this section of the Great Wall. We drove on a highway out into the countryside. Alison and I were both surprised at how green and forested it was. When we got off the highway we drove through some small towns. They were quiet and clean. Our guide pointed out a few things as we drove. We went past a golf course that had tall ionic columns out front - Alison commented how Roman they were. We asked our guide what sports other than golf were popular in China. She immediately responded ping pong. She said ping pong in China is like baseball in America. She also said they play football but are not very good. We also passed a giant statue of a bowl of fruit. The area we were driving through grows a lot of fruit and all the fruit in the bowl was planted in this area.

We arrived at the wall. The tour company we booked this trip through has a relationship with Subway (the sandwich shop). Because of this relationship, our driver was able to bypass the parking lot and a shuttle system and drive us right up to the area where the shuttle drops visitors. It turns out there is a Subway and Baskin Robbins right near the bottom of this section of the wall. More on that in a minute, because as we were walking up our guide mentioned we would eat lunch at Subway today. Also random fact, Subway in China smells exactly like Subway in the US.

Anyway, to get up to this section of the wall we took a chair lift. It felt a lot like we were in Park City. Especially since there was a toboggan (like the Alpine slide) right below us. As our chair lift climbed the Great Wall came into view. It was a bit of a foggy morning (a combination of clouds, humidity, and terrible unhealthy air quality). Despite those factors, the views were amazing. Susie took a picture for us and then gave us some free time to explore. Our starting point was watchtower 5. She told us we could go right to climb to the highest watch tower on this portion of the wall, watchtower 1. Or we could go left for an easier path with a view of more watchtowers.

First glimpse of the wall








We decided to go right. The Great Wall of China is incredible. It is hard to envision how huge and impenetrable this Wall truly feels. It is awe-inspiring. It also is not very flat. There are tons of steps almost all of which are uneven and occasionally extremely steep. Getting to watchtower 1 was quite a workout. We made it and enjoyed incredible views the entire way. On our way back to watchtower 5, we stopped to take lots of pictures and we even climbed up on top of one of the watchtowers. We asked a guy if he would mind taking our picture and since he was a nice fellow he agreed to help us out. We got to talking and found out he was from LA. As soon as we told him we were from SLC he told us he was in China with BYU’s MPA program. It was fun to be on the Great Wall of China and to run into a guy from BYU.


The woman in the background was brave! She carried her newborn on the Great Wall of China. 





These stairs were insanely steep. Going toward tower 1 was basically a challenging hike that was almost entirely uphill







The area surrounding this portion of the wall was so green. It was unreal. 



Photo cred: our new friend from BYU
Photo cred: our new friend from BYU


We made it back to watchtower 5 and had time to spare so we started walking on the other side of the wall. This was more in line with what we imagined the Great Wall would be like. There were still plenty of steps, but there were large flat sloping sections. This side of the wall was busier (most people seemed to follow their tour guides' recommendations and start this way). We walked to watchtower 8 before it was time to turn around and head back. This section of the wall was surrounded by the most vibrant, thick forest. It was incredible. There was one section on this portion of the wall where you could climb down and walk on a trail near the wall. We stayed on this trail for a minute to get perspective on what the wall looked like from the ground.
There were lots of signs asking people to be polite. For the most part, everyone we met was polite and this section of the wall was not crowded.
The views from on top of the wall were pretty incredible. It sure seems like an army would have to be insane to try to get past this wall. The fog also cleared up a bit as the day progressed. 
One of the handrails was pretty dirty and turned Alison's hands orange.  












To get down from the wall we rode on a toboggan. Alison narrowly missed riding In the same toboggan Michelle Obama rode on when she visited the wall. The toboggan was just like the alpine slide, except they send people down one right after another. So you have to be careful not to run over the people in front of you. The group in front of Alison and I was pretty slow, hence we had to go pretty slow. There was a group from Australia behind us and they were hollering and going fast, afterward, Susie told us she was very worried that they would run into her.

Michelle Obama rode on this toboggan in 2014
After we toured the Great Wall, we grabbed some lunch. It turns out that this Subway in addition to selling traditional sandwiches also sells Chinese food. They seated us at an upstairs patio where we could enjoy views of the Great Wall while we ate. They served us sweet and sour pork, some kind of spicy chicken with nuts and onions, mushrooms and bok choy in a buttery sauce, and bananas for dessert. It was all very good. Alison mentioned how she has noticed the food really isn’t all that different than some of the food we have eaten at Asian Star. I had to agree that some of the dishes are similar.

You can see the great wall on top of the hills in the distance




When we had finished eating we had a quiet ride to Beijing. After exploring the Great Wall and eating a delicious lunch we were tired. One good perk of doing a tour is that we have a nice car and driver. The car has good air conditioning, which is a must with the hot and humid weather. It also has very comfortable leather seats and we have a professional driver.  Susie told us professional drivers in Beijing are called "old drivers" because it denotes they have wisdom and experience. I think we could drive around Beijing. There are stop signs/lights and people for the most part seem to follow traffic rules similar to the US. Traffic can be really terrible in Beijing (there are literally 6 million cars in the city) and people aggressively merge and change lanes to move more quickly through slow traffic. We really appreciate having an excellent driver. This has been an easy and comfortable way to get around Beijing.

Our next stop was the Hutong area of Beijing. Hutong is a type of narrow street or alley. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. In a lot of ways, this area reminded me of certain parts of the old city of Jerusalem. It is mostly comprised of small one-story homes. Susie explained that while this area looks really poor it is actually one of the more expensive areas to live in Beijing and for the most part these homes have been passed down for generations. She also told us that the Hutong is unique because the owners of the Hutong residences are allowed to own their homes forever, while owners of apartments in other parts of the city can own an apartment for 70 years before ownership reverts to the government. We rode on a rickshaw through the Hutong community. Susie also told us there have been many attempts by the government to destroy the Hutong areas, in fact, they have already destroyed the majority of the Hutong areas in Beijing. However, in the early 2000s, they started to preserve some areas to retain the Hutong culture and promote tourism. However, Susie said that feelings around the Hutong are always changing and that they could very well be gone before we return to Beijing.



The rickshaw dropped us off near two towers that face a square. These towers are the bell tower and the drum tower. These towers were used to mark the passage of time. In the morning the bells would ring and in the afternoon the drums would be played. They still play the drums for demonstration purposes a few times a day. We were just in time to run up the tall stairs at the tower to catch the drum performance. It was pretty interesting. Susie said there was a time you could hear the drums all over Beijing, but now the city is so large and noisy you cannot hear them anymore.




To the right, you can see the white Pagoda in Beihai park, and to the left, you can see the Forbidden City 
The forbidden city in the background





After the bell tower, Susie took us to see a residence in the Hutong. This was not our favorite experience. The residence was small and somewhat interesting, but it is strange to march into someone's home. In theory, we were supposed to meet a Hutong family, but there was another large tour group there, so Alison and I opted to skip this part. It seemed uncomfortable anyway.


We headed back to the hotel to rest and freshen up for a few minutes before heading out again. Susie met us and got us an Uber to take us over to the Red Theater for the Kung Fu show. This was an action-packed show telling the story of a kid's journey into the world of Kung Fu. It was beautifully staged with a lot of really cool Kung Fu. Some of the moves would be quite intense - these kids and adults would do back flips where they landed on their heads - every time they did this Alison would flinch. They also did a routine where a guy laid down on sharp swords and placed a board filled with sharp nails on his chest and then pounded a stone laid on top of the nails with a sledgehammer. It was crazy. It was a fun and entertaining show. Although we both fell asleep, so it can't have been that interesting - thanks to jetlag. 



After the show, we were pretty tired, but we were also hungry so we ventured out to a nearby mall. Susie had recommended we try some Dim Sum (small plates) for dinner. She told us a very good restaurant was near our hotel in the APM mall. Her instructions were to go into the building with the Apple store and go up the 6th floor. The restaurant was called Din Tai Fun. It was amazing. The menu was a little overwhelming at first, but it was in English and Chinese and had pictures. Our waiter spoke a little English, but we mostly used pictures to show him what we wanted. We had pork and chicken dim sum, some pork and veggie dumplings, shrimp, and pork wantons (so good, but so unlike wantons in the US - these are soft and delicious). For dessert, we had the most delicious chocolate dumplings. This place was so good we kind of want to eat dinner here tomorrow night as well.

Shrimp and pork wantons
Pork dim sum
Chicken dim sum
Veggie and pork dumplings
No pictures of the Chocolate dumplings - they were just so good we gobbled them right up!

After dinner, we called it a night. Jet lag is rough. The 14-hour time difference is crazy. We get so tired early in the evening (8 or 9pm) and then wake up very early in the morning (4am). Hopefully, we will adjust soon.

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