Today we left by private car for the Great Wall at Mutianyu. Our original plan had been totake the public bus for about $2 but because we were out so late last night and felt stiff from bike riding all day yesterday we opted at the last minute to hire a car. We were about to leave when our hostess Angela said "I have a surprise. I asked my friend Michael to go with you today because he speak good English and maybe it's easier. I tell him you have daughter adopted from China and maybe he wants to meet you and we want to make sure she have good impression of China and fun time at wall." Shortly thereafter, arrives Michael. Popping into the lobby and putting plastic covers over his shoes, he eagerly introduces himself. Our driver spoke not one word of English and didn't seem too versed with the map either, so it was just as well.
We immediately ran into heavy traffic and slowly made our way out of sprawling Beijing. In contrast to when we were there 15 years ago, there is a lot of commercial development and trucks on the road. By the time we arrived at 11:00 we were lost in the crowds. Mutianyu is described as much less crowded than Badaling (the closest and most restored), and not quite as wild and unkept as the hike from Jinshangling to Simitai. Mutianyu is also one of the longest stretches, is very wooded, and has fantastic rugged mountains in the background. While you can't take the subway like Badaling, you can get there by public bus, and it's accessible by closed in cable car, ski lift and stainless stell tobaggon run.
We joined up with several thousand other tourists and bought tickets to go up the cable car and down via the tobaggon run. Michael assured us that even though there was a steady flow of bodies constantly bumping along, this was not the least crowded compared to Badaling. The weather I might add was spectacular. In the high 50's with a nice sunny sky. The atmosphere was very friendly. It felt like a big party or holiday, even though it was only Saturday and nothing special. There were many large tour groups wearing specific colored hats to identify themselves among the throngs. The guide carrying a flag was not enough.
What else can I say? The light was a bit washed out, but spectacular nevertheless. The trees had not started to bud yet and the land was barren and brown, craggy and harsh. I can't imagine enemies having to climb all the way up to the ridges and then scale the wall to invade. We had watched a PBS special on Netflix called Wild China and were surprised to hear that it used to have the reputation as being a graveyard because of all the people who died building it (slaves mostly). Now it has become a symbol for China.
It was a great day. Ariela was happy, Michael kept us having fun and moving along. Unfortunately it took us almost an hour to get through the line going down on the tobaggon run. It was great fun though. Along the winding path down there were guards dressed in Revolutionary uniforms screaming into uniforms "no photos" speed up, don't turn back to look, and any other things we could possibly be doing to slow the progress of getting the throngs of tourists off the wall. It was quite entertaining. Down in the parking lot we managed to buy 3 t-shirts "I climbed the great wall." and a Great Wall baseball cap at greatly reduced rates.
Since getting down took so long we had to rush past the Olympic Park - Bird's Nest and Water Cube en route to the Summer Palace. Traffic was already very heavy. Since Michael was taking a group of foreigners to a Kung Fu show we had to leave him at a subway stop and continue without him. After at least an hour we arrived at the Summer Palace only to be immersed in yet another throng of people. Think DISNEY only without the rides and steep entrance fee.
The summer palace is situated Northwest of Beijing on some lovely lakes surrounded by hills. It mainly dates back to the last Emperess Cixi who ruled from here before her demise. It is beautifully situated on many acres. The crowds were worse than at the Great Wall. As arranged by Michael, we were let off at the East Gate entrance and were sujpposed to be picked up by the North Gate in about 1.5 hours. We bought tickets to the grounds only since it didn't look like we'd be able to get inside any buildings anyway fighting the crowds.
By the time we got inside a strong wind had picked up and we were freezing. We'd left our coats in the car in the traffic and confusion of being dropped off. While the place is amazingly beautiful and interesting, the crowds were so thick we could hardly see where we were going. Yhr grounds were HUGE so we had to walk briskly along, following our map to get out the North Gate by 5:00. Once we got out there we couldn't find our guide, but thanks to our handy cell phone, we called Michael and he called the guide and we determined that we were not at the North Gate, even though we were at the gate that our map called the North Gate. We were at a smaller gate right down the street where the large tour busses let out, but eventually we managed to find each other.
It felt great to come home to our cozy, wonderful B&B where it was warm, quite and welcoming.
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