Breakfast at Lido's Starbucks, the meetup point.
A sketch map of the route
A message on a sign board at the starting point of the 1st ascend to the Wall.
Nicely reflecting the spirit of this hike.
Leftover snow could be seen along the path
At the first resting point on the Wall
No! I did not graffiti "2008" on the wall, someone else did, so might as well used it for a memory shot, right?
Quite a steep and difficult climb at some sections.
This is one of our guide - the lovely Huijie, she is really really super fit, don't let her small frame fool you!
Okay, I could now claim I that had tried supporting a part of the crumbling Great Wall of China!
A shot with the family from America at the 2nd resting point on the wall.
Yes! These are the guys - the 2 guides that led this hike.
Huijie on the left and Hayden in the centre. Hayden is from New Zealand and he whipped up a marvellous salad and pasta for us to savour at the end of the hike! He propped up the rear of the group with the GPS that kept all the data of this hike.
A village at the foot of the Wall
Crumbling walls!
The final tower that we reached for this approx. 10km hike.
This is the section of the final descend from the wall. The winding road path below leads to the village where we would have our delicious X'mas lunch!
BBQ trout! Marvelicious! A heavenly treat indeed!
Everyone digging in and enjoying the X'mas spread prepared by 2 cooks from a Korean restaurant in Beijing (who accompanied us here as our chefs!) together with the local cooking team of this place. Notice the 2 tupperware boxes of salad? They were prepared by Hayden, the guide the night before and they were very delicious! Thumbs up for you, Hayden! You're the MAN!
This is the heated bed where the locals slept on. They allowed us to "intrude" and keep us warm because the weather was getting really cold.
The finale of this hike - the dumpling making contest!
I was appointed the official time keeper with my Casio digital watch!
There were 2 winners - one for the most number of completed dumplings and the other for the nicest dumpling.
I added in my 2 cents worth by mentioning that it was not a case of having the nicest dumpling but the best one should be the one which will not disintegrate when being cooked! Everyone agreed including the judges (the local cooks!) With that the nicest dumpling contest became the best dumpling contest!
After that, we ended the trek and headed back to Beijing. We reached Beijing a little later than planned as the trek took longer (5 hours instead of 3~4 hours) than was scheduled but everyone was happy with the entire trip nevertheless! The lowest point reached was 520m, the highest point - 850m, the ascend was about 757m.
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The hike had a difficulty level of 3 but it was overall a relatively comfortable hike with 2 rest stops in between. We did a total of 2 climbs and 2 descends. This was a trip worth every RMB paid! We were the only group in the entire area, we saw the Wall in its unrestored conditions, we took in sights and great photos of the long stretch of the Great Wall, completely isolated and untouched - what more could we ask for? This beats those touristy and easy trips to Badaling where one had to contend with the crowd and the souvenir peddlers, let alone take a good photo without framing strangers in it. As for the Simatai-Jinshanling route - the walls there are partially restored hence it probably lose some of its original authenticity and it was an easy route.
I enjoyed this hike thoroughly and would do it all over again if I could. Going up on foot, you could imagine what people went through and had to endure during the lengthy construction of the walls as well as those who perished in that time. When I was up on the wall, at certain sections, I was thinking why on earth would anyone want to build this wall to keep out the enemies when the terrain itself leading up to the walls would have killed the enemy in any case? Puzzling! Imagine the lives and resources wasted!
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