Amateur Adventures #49: Traversing the Great Wall

Hello lovely Steemians.

Well its been a while since I've shared my adventuring with you - at least the ones where I cram as much as I can into my backpack (You'd think I would learn by now to pack light) and go traipsing off round the world with @cryptoandzen in tow.

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Today's adventure goes back to my trip to China, where I tried to cram as many UNESCO sites into three weeks as I possibly could - turns out there are quite a lot in China!

A friend who is visiting Hong Kong for the holidays asked me this week if it was worth popping over to China for three or four days to "do" Beijing and the Great Wall.

We were five days in Beijing and still only got to have a cursory glance over some of the most amazing historical sites on earth - and as for could she "do" The Great Wall... it's one of those how long is a piece of sting questions... a piece of string long enough to see from space apparently.

As I mentioned - The Great Wall is a UNESCO world heritage site and I am on a mission to see as many of these as possible.

So here's a bit of history from the WHC Inscription:

The Great Wall was continuously built from the 3rd century BC to the 17th century AD on the northern border of the country as the great military defence project of successive Chinese Empires, with a total length of more than 20,000 kilometers. The Great Wall begins in the east at Shanhaiguan in Hebei province and ends at Jiayuguan in Gansu province to the west. Its main body consists of walls, horse tracks, watch towers, and shelters on the wall, and includes fortresses and passes along the Wall.

The Great Wall reflects collision and exchanges between agricultural civilizations and nomadic civilizations in ancient China. It provides significant physical evidence of the far-sighted political strategic thinking and mighty military and national defence forces of central empires in ancient China, and is an outstanding example of the superb military architecture, technology and art of ancient China. It embodies unparalleled significance as the national symbol for safeguarding the security of the country and its people.

There are so many popular places to visit the wall and we ended up at the The Mutianyu Section a little less touristy than the more popular Badaling. However being the week of National Holiday - thousands upon thousands of people come in from the countryside on their pilgrimage to see Mao's body lying in state (Against his wishes by the way.. he wanted to be cremated. Of course they also visit all the major tourist sites, given that is the one and only time many of them will come to the city. So even this part of the wall was a little busier than usual but we managed to take off in the opposite direction than the crowds as we were planning on exploring some of the original un-restored parts of the wall..

So much of the trek is taken up sidestepping the local tourists who are dressed in their Sunday best suits and dresses, gloves and umbrellas to protect from the sun - as well as many of the women reasonably high heels.... the attire astounded me pretty much everywhere we visited, but they managed to trek, hike and sight-see amazingly! I'd have been falling over on butt all day hiking in those shoes!

There are a couple of ways up to the wall - the good old fashioned way up hundreds of steps - or a ride in the cable car. Given we were planning on walking about 15kms of the wall we opted for the cable car.

This section of the wall is great to visit as there are both sections very well preserved and also some sections of the original wall that have not been reconstructed (Although technically the sign says not to go to that point - but hey that's just giving me a challenge!)

Its also the best place to see the watchtowers - which are more dispersed in other areas, and in some, non-existent.

We visited in October and it was still quite warm and we were lucky enough to have a cloudless sunny day. The views are simply breathtaking - be prepared for a long walk though - and take plenty of water and where good shoes.

When it's time to come back down - there is one extra option besides the stairs and the cable car - for those who want to brave the luge (not me!)

Its definitely worth "doing" even if you only have a couple of spare days while in Hong Kong to duck across and take a look. It is one of the great wonders of mankind.

Til the next adventure - Steem on in Love and Light

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!steemitworldmap 40.44192150986555 lat 116.55506596026612 long Great Wall of China - D3SCR