The great wall of China is pretty big, you may have heard that before. You can get there pretty easily from Beijing and that's what most people do. The trouble is, that bit has all been rebuilt for tourists and is kinda lame. It's also very very busy with coach tours.
The further away from Beijing you go the quieter (and nicer) it is. So we decided to try that. We went to Jinshan which took about 2.5 hours in a car. We then walked 12.5km along the wall which took about 3 hours. We stopped for drinks, pictures and general 'this is harder than I thought it would be' moments.
Also as a little bonus, when you reach Simatai there is a 400m zip line across a gorge down to ground level. Yeah it's pretty good! I can't remember what all this costs but virtually nothing really.
Anyway, highly recommend it. Amazing thing those Chinese folk built a couple of years ago.
To have the driver drop us there and pick us up later cost £80 (so pay at the end!). It seems a lot but he's driving for around 5 hours. I've been in some dodgy driving experiences here and there but nothing like the way the cars drive out in the countryside in China. Jesus, I lost years off my life through stress. The cars basically drive like motorbikes, pulling out on blind corners, brows of hills etc etc. They have a thing for undertaking on the grass verges too which is actually more fun than scary. I generally like manic driving but this is where I drew the line.
More pictures on Flickr.
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