Getting to the Great Wall
Woke up to realize I had made a big mistake leaving the Great Wall for the last day in Beijing. After a week of sunshine (although many days were very smoggy), it was now pouring rain outside, but I had no choice; I could not come to China and not see the most famous part of the Great Wall. I had decided to go to a less populated area of the wall that was not too far away, Mutianyu (幕田峪). Charlotte agreed to go with me to an area where we found with city buses going to that area and returns to Beijing 3 hours later. We got there and found that they only go once they have 15 people and including me they only had 12. Some people on the bus just wanted to split the cost of the other 3 missing spots, but since not everyone was in agreement after an hour they said the bus would not go to the wall that day. So we went back to the apartment and looked for other options. Charlotte found another city bus that would go up as its regular route. I held off an hour or so hoping the rain would let up, but no luck so off I went.
In China they have fake everything, fake clothes, fake restaurants (where they will have the same name as a famous one, but have nothing to do with it) and even fake bus stations. Yes that is right, I walked up to where the station was supposed to be and saw a whole group of buses with the correct numbers on the sign, but couldn't find the bus I needed to take. Finally someone in an information booth said that the bus I needed wasn't running and I would need to take a car up there for about $25, which I really didnt want to do. After I called Charlotte and she told me not to believe him, I looked around and thought there weren't enough people at this station and something was wrong. I saw a group of people walking further down the road so I walked to where they were coming from and found another bus station, this time it was the real bus station. I found my bus and 2 hours later I was at the Great Wall
The Great Wall
So I finally got to the Great Wall and it was pouring, much worse than in Beijing and I needed to take a chair lift to the top. I was lucky this was China because the winds were so strong there is no way a chair lift would be running in the US. When I got to the top the wind was even worse, probably gusts of up to 30 MPH and constant downpour, but there was only a couple other people I could see on the wall and it is almost impossible to get that!
Cold, Wet, but on the Great Wall
Trip so Far
Below is a map of the places we have been, next stop Nanjing
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