It's Tomorrow Here: Great Wall...It's really that big

Our big side trip while in Beijing was the same as everybody else, go see the Great Wall. The construction of small sections of a wall began in the 5th century b.c. by various independent groups, but it was linked together into what we know now by Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi around 220 b.c. He was the first emperor of China and saw this as a good defense from nomads from the north. The most impressive portions of the wall were created in the Ming dynasty where soldiers and peasants from the entire country were conscripted to work on its construction.

When deciding how to visit the wall you pretty much have 3 choices, Badaling, which has been open the longest and is the closest to Beijing therefore it's a tourist zoo, Mutianyu which has very beautiful scenery and has not been rebuilt but is a bit further away, and lastly hike from Jinshalin to Simitai, a nice 10k stroll between these two towns.

After seeking numerous recommendations we opted for the last choice, the 10k hike from Jinshalin to Simitai. This section of the wall was the furthest away, about a 3+ hr drive, but it allowed us about 5 hours on the wall and plenty of serenity. An early rise allowed us to arrive at the wall around 9:30 and we were off on our journey.

The first sight, even before the wall, is that of the women who are notorious for latching on to visitors and hiking with them as far as they can, pestering them to buy water, food or souvenirs. These ladies were with the whole group as we worked our way towards the wall, but broke off into smaller teams as soon as we arrived. Michelle and I were willing to do anything to preserve the peace and quite we were hoping for so we dropped way behind as to let all of them move ahead with the rest of the hikers. Our plan worked and we are happy to report that we were free from this annoyance throughout the hike. This is not to say that there weren't people at just about every outpost trying to sell you a t-shirt or water, but at least we didn't have anyone attached to our backsides like some others.

Our hike to the wall led us to this point where we entered the wall.

We took our time snapping photos and admiring the beautiful cherry blossoms, letting all the distractions run quickly ahead. We lucked out and had a very clear day so visibility stretched for miles in all directions.

You can see lots of fortifications along the wall where soldiers stood guard and slept at night, these were spaced about a 5 to 10 minute walk apart most of the time.

Moving along we inevitably caught up with some of the other hikers, but luckily their friends chose to stick with them and not try their skills with us.

The gnome decided to finally come out of hiding, we don't think we've seen him since Australia.

Throughout the hike we occasionally met sections that were in pretty bad shape, nothing that was hazardous, but it did make for some difficult climbing in the steep portions.

We kept looking back to take in the views and were amazed that for most of the hike we could make out our starting point (or somewhere close). I just wasn't expecting it to be this clear, but we were really happy it was. We spoke to some people who went three days earlier and they said they couldn't see more than a quarter mile in any direction.

We knew we would miss the peak cherry blossom time in Korea and Japan, so this was a great consolation prize!

Michelle had the eye for these shots from the doorways, and I think they came out really nice.

Just in case you were wondering if we actually made it or if we just paid someone to take all these pictures, here are your intrepid travelers in the flesh.

The final portion of the hike was a suspension bridge over a river that goes through Simitai. We're not sure if there was an ancient bridge here, but it sure looks like it.