On our second day in Beijing, we tried a guided tour of Beijing. It was the kind you see all over the world, with a person carrying a flag and 20 people in tow. Our guide was very pleasant and knowledgeable, but it always seemed that we stopped too long at places I didn't want, and rushed through areas I wanted to stay. It was also over 34 C (94 F) with high humidity, so paying attention was like being in Summer School! My sister's and I ducked out for the afternoon portion to get some shopping done, and to figure out what we could do for our next, and last day in China.
When I got back to the Hotel, I went to Concierge to ask about tours to the Great Wall. I did not want to go to "Badaling," the closest, and most touristy portion of the Great Wall. There are three other sites that can be visited, but two of them were two hour drives out of town, and the other one was a four hour drive. The bus tours were too regimented, and would have cost $50 for the three of us to go. A private car would cost $150 to take us. I decided to take another approach.
I went out to the Valet outside the Hotel lobby, and asked him in Chinese if he knew any cab drivers, with an air conditioned car, willing to take three people to the Great Wall for about 400RMB (about $50 USD)? He didn't think this would be a problem, and told us to meet him in the morning at 7am, when he started his shift.
In the morning, we met our cab driver, and discussed our plans. For
400, he would take us to Badaling, but to go two hours outside of Beijing,
he had to get 600. We agreed on 550 RMB to take us to Si Ma Tai, a portion
of the wall that is built on some very hilly country.
At 7am, we still hit pockets of traffic leaving Beijing. There are
a series of ring roads that encircle Beijing starting at Tiennimen Square.
Each subsequent ring is larger in circumference, and they are currently
building the 6th ring road approximately 20 Km outside of the city.
On our way out, we picked up some breakfast. They were the Chinese
version of a doughnut, only these looked more like crullers, and were not
sweet. I hadn't had these since I was a kid when my Mom made them for my
father!
We arrived at 9am, and from the looks of it, we were the first
in the parking lot. There were two routes to the Wall, one was on a cable
car that would take you almost all the way to the top, the other, was to
climb up. You miss so much of the scenery when you go the way 95 percent
of the world travels, so we went for the walk up. IT WAS HOT, but I knew
we would soon be rewarded with our efforts.
Getting to the wall was a steep climb, but we had some shade along
the path, but once we got to the wall, things changed.
Since the Great Wall was built on the ridges of the hill tops, there
was no shade between the guard towers. The morning sun was just beginning
to heat things up as we got to the wall after a 1/2 hour climb up from
the valley. Expecting a cool breeze at the top of the hill, I was met with
haze and more heat. The humidity and haze just hung in the air without
any trace of wind.
The steps were uneven, so you really had to pay attention to where you
stepped. The rise was very steep on the wall, so a misstep could mean an
unstoppable tumble. Our goal was to reach the cable car that would take
us back down to our car, but it involved climbing up at least six sections
of the wall between the guard towers spaced about 75 meters apart. Although
climbing all these steps was very strenuous, climbing down from the cable
car would have been a bad choice. I felt much better looking up to where
I was going rather than looking down at the steep flight of steps trying
to keep a sure footing.
We were gone for about 2-1/2 hours when we reached the car. I felt
badly for our cab driver for waiting so long, but he had found a nice shady
spot to park, and was fine about the wait.
On our drive back to Beijing, we stopped at a small restaurant for some lunch. It was obvious this was also the owner's house. I tried to figure out how they sold their dumplings, and if they did take out. They said that the sold their dumplings by the "gong," but I couldn't make out how many that was. Considering they wanted less than $2 USD, I figured I wouldn't end up with a gross! When the order came out, they said that they did not have take-away containers, so they split the order up in three plastic shopping bags, and gave me three sets of chopsticks! Our driver had already eaten, so my sister's and I sat merrily picking our dumplings out of our respective bags in the cab. It came out to be about 15 dumplings each. Not bad for two bucks!