China - Day 6

FINALLY I am getting day 6 up on the blog!! Between getting ready for Halloween/my mom's birthday and blogger problems this whole China trip has taken forever to tell!!!

We had heard from some people in our hostel that the best way to see the Great Wall was to ride the subway to the DongZhiMen station and hire a minibus. Navigating the subway was surprisingly simple, but when we exited the station there weren't any minibuses to be found. We walked around in circles for quite some time and were just about to give up when destiny in the from of Mr Ye came up behind us. We bargained with him for some time and finally agreed upon a price. Mr Ye was so pleased he could hardly contain himself. This was our confirmation that we paid too much. It equated to about $20 American dollars and he was the only driver we found so it was ok with us.



The ride up to the wall took about 2 1/2 hours and was very similar to a Shanghai taxi ride. Apparently it is ok to drive on the wrong side of the road to pass people - anytime including when you are going up a hill and can't tell if anything is coming from the other direction. Another interesting driving tip from the Chinese is that if the light is red, you should turn right, immediately u-turn, and then turn right again thus avoiding ever actually stopping. Well, that or just outright run the light. Really I think the motto for driving is don't stop!! There was one highlight on the way - we had purchased some snacks before we got on the subway to eat along the way. This one was my favorite purely for the name. I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I opened the bag and didn't find chicken on the inside, but the chicken flavored puffs were pretty tasty.





Finally we reached the wall. We purchased a ticket (this will become a theme) for 50 yuan and walked over to a lift that resembled a ski lift to get us to the top where we purchased a lift ticket for 30 yuan. Only two people would fit in each lift and I rode up with Carrissa.



Once at the top we were met with the most amazing view of the wall and the countryside. It was breathtaking. The photos just do not do it justice. It was an amazing experience and one I will remember for the rest of my life.































We made a 10k journey along the wall to the a city called Simatai. During this LONG journey up large hills and down steep inclines, we learned some very valuable lessons.

1) The Great Wall is home to a ton (and I mean a ton) of beetles. They don't sting or bite but they are quite annoying.



2) When tiny Mongolian women follow you for miles on the wall it is NOT because they think your hair is "piao liang" (beautiful) even though that is what they will tell you. They are actually interested in selling you water bottles that are used and have been refilled with water. Yuck!! And Should you refuse the typhoid water the next offer is post cards, books, and t-shirts in that order. When you refuse and try to run away they will cuss you in Chinese. On a side note, tiny Mongolian women do not have to pay the additional 20 yuan charged to the white girls for yet another ticket 1/2 way along the wall.





3) 10k on a hilly (read: Steep-ass) wall is not the equivalent of 10k on a nice flat surface. Even if you are normally in pretty good shape, the wall is no joke.

Tiffany and I were really struggling towards the end. We resorted to chanting our trip motto "I know I can!!!" up the final set of stairs. Instead of walking all the way back down to the parking lot we decided to take a "shortcut" - the zipcord ride over lake to get back down (35 yuan). When we got to the bottom of the zipcord we discovered there was yet another boat we had to take to get back to the parking lot (20 yuan).

On the boat


Our shortcut ended up taking an extra hour and put us late getting back to Mr Ye. Thankfully we found him and got loaded up and settled in for the long trip home. Not more than 5 minutes after we started on the journey home, Mr Ye saw some people walking on the side of the road and stopped to try and sell them a ride home. He wanted us to squish together and fit 4 more people in that tiny minibus!! We decided it would be best to pretend we didn't understand what he was trying to say, LOL. This went on and on for about 10 minutes. Finally a gave him some more money and told him "GO!!!" and we got back on the road. If it is possible I think the ride home was even worse than the ride there. It was dark outside so that made the "creative driving" even more frightening and there was a large traffic jam.

There were a few eventful moments on our trip home. At one point we were going through an intersection and there were two men who had wrecked punching and kicking each other. It seems when you have an accident in China it's normal to punch the other guy rather than call the police. Then later Tiffany decided to talk to Mr Ye about taking us all the way back to the hostel for some extra cash rather than dropping us back off at the subway station. After she convinced him and they agreed upon a price, she got ready to sit back down and totally missed the seat!! Even Mr Ye cracked up at her fall!!

The wall was amazing and this was by far my favorite day of the entire trip!!