We Made it to The Great Wall of China

Tony and I had now been in China for 10 days. After that much time, you start to feel like you’ve done so much already – from the night life of Shanghai, to the magical views in Guilin, to the historic sights in Beijing. So that’s why saving the Great Wall of China for this day was a perfect idea. It gave us something “big” to still look forward to after 10 action-packed days.

One of the main reasons we saved it for this day was also because we knew it was important not to go there when the Chinese people are on holiday, as they were through Wednesday. So we went the day after. It’s probably the equivalent of going the day after Memorial Day – everyone else’s first day back at work after an extended holiday weekend.

With help from the concierge at our hotel, we hired a driver for the day. An excellent decision. For 850 RMB (roughly $140) we had a drive for the day to take us to two major sights outside the city: The Great Wall of China and the Summer Palace. He also drove us by the Olympic stadium, otherwise known as “the nest egg,” sight of most of the major events of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. We didn’t tour the stadium, we simply drove by on the highway.

But our day began by meeting the driver in our hotel lobby around 9:00 AM. His name was Neil, he was Chinese, about 30 years old, and spoke English. He was very enthusiastic throughout our nearly two hour drive to the Great Wall, telling us a lot about China, the Great Wall, and even talking a little NBA basketball with us.

A little over an hour into our trip, he told us we were to make a “scheduled” stop at some kind of pottery factory on the way to the Great Wall. This is one of the reasons we hired a driver: so we could avoid these tourist trap type places that the local tour buses take you to. We told him we would rather not go there. But he told us it was a requirement, something about the government. Hmmm. He then told us we would not be required to buy anything and we could leave within 10 minutes of getting there.

When we stopped, we noticed a placard on the entrance to the building said something about how this was an official government sanctioned site. We were immediately greeted by a host who gave us a very quick tour of the place. Apparently this is the place where official Chinese pottery (?) is made. It was interesting. And then they ended the tour in a very large gift shop. There were a lot of nice items there, but they were quite pricey. So we walked through pretty fast, used the opportunity to use the facilities, and then found Neil waiting for us and we hopped back on the road towards the Great Wall.

There are many different places to see the Great Wall at. After all, it is over 1,000 miles in length. Some parts are more well kept up than others and there are many parts today that you wouldn’t want to go – they are more just ruins. We had heard a lot about one spot on the wall called Badaling. But we also heard this is where a lot of the tour groups go and it can be quite busy. Another area that a lot of the locals and some of our friends who have been recommended is an area called Mutianyu. Tony was also pretty insistent we go to this area. What a great decision this was.

Neil drove us to the entrance of the place and told us he would wait in his car and expect us back in about two hours. To get up to the Great Wall, we had to take a chair lift – almost identical to what you would take to go skiing. On the way down, it was recommended we take the toboggan slide down. It looked crazy, but it ended up being a lot of fun and very safe.

Once on top of the Wall, we were just blown away. We had to climb up this interior ladder to get “on top” of the wall and once we did, we had the choice to go in either direction. As we started to walk and get a chance to take a look around, it was breathtaking. First, the Great Wall in this area is built right on top of the mountain tops. So in either direction you are looking out into the valleys below. On one side (to the north) is where the canons on top of the Great Wall would point to. The wall was a historic defense measure to keep out invaders. On the other side (to the south) is Beijing, almost a two hour drive away as we just witnessed.

The Great Wall of China is listed as one of the top man-made wonders of the world. I have also read it is one of the few earthly structures that you can see from outer space.  It was great to be fortunate to get here at some point in our lifetime. Tony even told me – “The Gonzalez’s have made it the Great Wall and we are the first in the family to do so.” Wow, what a thought!

There seemed to be very few crowds here today. There was a nice steady flow of people, but at some points it almost felt like you had the whole wall to yourself. We walked about 30 minutes in one direction and then back – but it was grueling – lots of steep climbs and lots of steps! I old Tony this makes doing stadiums seem easy. It was also pretty hot as we were climbing these steps right around 12 noon. And in some places you climb steps to get up to one of the towers along the wall only to then go back down from the tower to the other side. And then right back up. Whew!

Inside the towers, however, it was nice and cool and a great place to take a break and take in the views. We probably stayed on top of the wall for about 90 minutes or so. We snapped plenty of great photos and then decided to head back. But before doing so, Tony bought us beers — which we drank while taking in our final view from on top of the Great Wall. Gambei!

As I mentioned above, the way back down was to take a toboggan ride. Neither of us had ever done something like this and now we were shooting down a mountain on a toboggan slide – taking a ride off the Great Wall of China! How cool! It was a fun ride down. You can check out a one-minute video I took on my iPhone from one part of the ride down.

Once there, there was actually a Subway restaurant and so we grabbed a quick lunch and then found our driver Neil waiting for us in the parking lot. From there he took us back towards Beijing. We passed by the Olympic Stadium and then he dropped us off at the Summer Palace, which was an imperial retreat for the Chinese emperors during the Qing dynasty (late 1700s to early 1900s). It was basically their summer retreat from the Forbidden City and it was beautiful.

The Summer Palace has some lakes, a large temple, and many gardens. We didn’t have a huge amount of time so Neil suggested that when we entered the park, we get on the ferryboat, take it across the lake and get off and explore the large temple on the grounds. This was excellent advice. Despite the holiday being officially over, there were many crowds out here at the Summer Palace. There were lots of people on paddle boats in the lake and all over the place walking the grounds. It was like one big public park. After exploring the temple, we then walked the semi-circle back to where we came into the park and met back up with Neil.

He then drove us back to the hotel, which was roughly a 40-minute drive. We were back just before 5:00 PM. A really great full day, but it wasn’t over yet. After resting up and showering, we then went back over to the Ya Show market so I could be fitted for my suit.

Once there, we then got dinner in that Sanlitun area and met up with our friend Sam for a few drinks. We bar hopped around the area for a bit and Sam took us into a Chinese nightclub. This was a bit different than the clubs and bars we had gone to in Shanghai – the clientele at those were mostly Westerners. Instead we went to a club called Mix, which was mostly Chinese clientele – but they were listening to the same (mostly American) music – it was pretty packed and very lively. From there we then checked out a nightclub called The World of Suzie Wong that was pretty dead on this night, but had very good music and the owner and staff were very accommodating. We ended the night at close to 2 AM and then took a taxi back to the hotel. We would have only one more full day in Beijing ahead of us and after our many action packed days – including this Great one – we were starting to think about home.