Day 127: Beijing, Hebei Province

I got up and packed around 5:30 in the morning, remaining quite so the others could sleep. Still didn't get to catch any Zzz's that night. I was hoping to see an amazing sunrise, but it was very foggy outside.

Eventually, the rest if the group woke up and we began our trek to Mutianyu, which is the rebuilt touristy part of the wall 6 hours away. The trek started off tough, with a steep mountain with no stairs. We were required to climb up a mix between broken wall and jagged mountain rocks. I will admit, it was a little nerve rocking! 

Once we tackled this area we were on to beautiful sights.

It is so cool to see how the wall has aged as the centuries passed with the crumbling stone and over grown paths. It feels very rare to be walking these paths and it really put my mind pack hundreds of years to when Chinese soldiers would guard these walls against the Mongols; I felt like one of those soldiers.

Each watch tower was a great stopping point as they were at either the top or bottom of each mountain and no two were alike.

(Notice my foot in the bottom of the picture, long way down!)

As the day went on, the fog rolled in, it was amazing to see how different it was on each side of the wall. To the north, clear mountainous valleys, to the south, pure fog.

Once we saw our first tourist, we knew we were getting close to Mutianyu. Eventually we could see the rebuilt wall on the horizon.

While it was touristy, seeing the wall rebuilt was also an amazing sight.

It was so rewarding to be done with the trek! We wanted to take the slide back down the mountain but it was under construction, so we walked down; just when we thought it was over!

Once we got to the bottom, we were bombarded by shop vendors. And of course, all we wanted was a meal and it was all triple the price. We picked up some, relatively, cheap instant noodles and chowed down. After lunch, we went over to where the bus back to Beijing was and there, we were bombarded by guys trying to drive us back to Beijing, telling us that the bus wasn't running. I told the girls we should wait until the first bus is supposed to get here until we talk to those guys. Sure enough, the first bus arrived on time and we were on our way to Beijing.

When I returned back to Beijing, I headed back to Joseph's friend's, Joe's, apartment and slept the day away, after I showered of course!