Pete & Rach's Big Trip: The Great Wall of China: Jinshanling to Simatai

Nicely paved and restored at the start of the walk...

Rach says:

An early highlight was our hike along the Great Wall. Such stunning scenery and just amazing to be standing on the Great Wall of China! We visited a less touristy and undeveloped part of the wall about 3 hours drive from Beijing and walked from Jinshanling to Simatai - 22 towers and approx 6 km. But it was not a walk in the park!!! The walk TO the wall was one of the worst bits as there was no breeze at all and my head started to feel weird so I had to stop
and rest! We were thinking "what are we doing? We can't hack this!!" Up on the wall, some of the sections were very crumbly and very very steep - we were literally climbing the wall as it snaked up and down the mountains. One of the Mongolian farmers on the wall told me that I looked like her daughter. I have often been told I look a bit Chinese, but for an Asian person to say it is quite funny!

Pete says:

I think it might be the hardest physical thing I have ever done. It took us about 4 hours to make the journey along the 22 towers. Some of it was so steep it was quite dangerous really and I have never sweated so much. Actually I was noticably sweating more than anyone else so maybe I am not cut out for this weather!!

Aside from the rest of our tour group there were these Mongolian farmers who have exchanged farming for sitting in the wall's towers selling cold drinks and tshirts to passers by. They will follow you the whole way if you let them but they are quite nice. Some of these people are in their 70's so God knows how they get up there each day. I suppose it is better than working fields. They looked quite amused as I struggled into each rest point and collapsed.

It is some of the most impressive scenery I have ever seen. Despite some scary bits that were almost vertical and with no side walls that set off my fear of heights, it was well worth it.

On the walk back to our hostel, there was a bloke in the street wailing and doing weird gestures next to an old woman who was lying on her back, apparently dead or pretending. Not sure exactly if he was claiming she was ill or dead but people were chucking money at him.

We then drank in a bar that seems big on American punk interspersed with tunes that make me think of bad nights at Edwards. I have found a local lager that is so cheap they sell it in pitchers instead of pints. Amazing.