A hike into history

The Great Wall of China. The mother of all walls. And yes, it is as amazing as people claim it to be!

I left Beijing early one morning and headed north towards the Wall, to a part of the wall that is very little restored, but that has some of the most amazing views you get on The Great Wall. After a few hours of driving I arrived at Jinshanling. It was cold outside, but the sky was as clear as it can get, and I was lucky to escape the never ending fog and pollution one finds in Beijing. Getting up on the wall was a 2 km hike straight up. The Wall is built on mountain tops and stretched from peak to peak as far as I could see in both directions. On the top a stunning view met me, but it would only get better and better the further I went.

My destination was 10 km away, and it is not easy to hike The Great Wall. It is constantly up and down from peak to peak so steep that you sometimes need to use both hands and feet to get up the remains if the stairs that once used to be there. But oh, it's worth it!

As I reached the highest point of the hike, my legs were like jelly and layer after layer of clothes had come of becaus all of a sudden I wasn't that cold anymore. I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath and to take in the beauty of what surrounded me, still finding it hard to believe that I was actually walking on a wall constructed more than 2000 years ago I ask myself how they got all the stones on top of the mountains to construct the wall.

Unfortunately I can't stand like that, admiring the wall, forever so I start the descent towards Simatai and the zippline that is going to take me down the wall, across the lake and back to the buss that awaits to bring me back to Beijing.