I am still catching up on China blogs so forgive me – more to come from the Philippines. SOON!
At the end of our time in China we were blessed with the opportunity to go to Beijing and tour the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square.
We had heard rumors that we would be visiting a part of the wall that was “secret”. That was not fully restored and therefore less touristy but also much more difficult to navigate. Honestly, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I prefer a vacation to be relaxing and touring to be a little hiking but not a haul up a mountain. Well, that was what we did!
This is the view from the trail we were taking!
Our hostel (Leo’s Hostel) in Beijing boasts that they tour this “secret”section of the wall and that only they know about it. Well the plans were made we paid our money and we were off. The day began with a 3 hour van ride out of the city and into the mountains. It is December in China mind you and the city was quite chilly but once we arrived into the mountains cold took on a whole new understanding for me. It was frigid!
It was so cold there was snow on the ground!
On our way there we picked up this man who turned out to be our guide for the day. It turns out that he is a local farmer who has lived in this area of China his whole life. He is 70 years old! I think he probably climbs this mountain 2-3 times a week. So we were the ones he was pushing along to keep going.
Sherpa “Larry” as we like to call him
It was about 3 hours up the mountain and then walking along the wall. Followed by an almost vertical hike down the mountain. I only fell once and I was very grateful. We ended our hike at the bottom with a lunch served by a local family. It was delicious and food never tasted so good. I hope you enjoy the pictures because I cannot describe in words how beautiful this day was. The Lord’s creation from that view was amazing. It was worth the pain and I hope you enjoy the pics.
