Wednesday, December 25, 2013

2013 Nov: China: Beijing: Conquering the Wall

We left the hotel by 7:30, and pick-up other tourists along the way.  We left the city at around 8:00.  It's a long two hour ride without traffic passing the tree plantation and mountainous area of Beijing.  Finally, we arrived at Mutianyu section on Great Wall of China. 

Tour buses stayed at Park #4, then we walked passing Park #3, #2, #1.  We were given our entrance tickets and paid an extra 80yuan (480php) each for open cable car going up and tobonggan going down.  The last portion of the cable car is a bit scary because the cliff is to deep and dark that I was not able to see the ground clearly. 

It is around 8 km (Mutianyu) walk from the cable exit/tobonggan (Tower 6) to Tower 11.  If you want to see the old walls go towards right direction for Tower 1.
Tobongan (Left), Open Cable Car (Right)




Amazing architecture, noticed that the flooring is not flat.  It is tilted to give passage for the water to flow.




Per Tony, our guide, wall in Beijing is the picturesque since it is in mountainous area.  Other walls are in flat area and on sea.  Aside from the wall, there is watch tower and beacon tower.  The soldiers communicate by smokes, if coming enemies are around 100 it would be 1 smoke, if 200 it will be 2 smokes, if around 500 soldiers they will use 3 smokes.   Great Wall is also considered the longest cemetery since they buried people inside the wall.  Some builders died due to weather and loss of energy, since they are doing manually most of the work and no modern machines at that time.







Some parts are obviously ripped off, some walls are with graffiti, some are with cracks and scary that some pillars are having holes.




Glad to find this tour which is specifically only to Great Wall, no hours spent on those jade factory shops.  

Some souvenirs from Muntianyu grounds:

Mutianyu Great Wall one day tour (Daily) - Price: 280 RMB per person
Includes: Breakfast, lunch, entrance ticket, both-way transportation, and tour guide (No shopping time)
Contact: Lee Chun springtimehostel@yahoo.com
Tobonggan: http://www.mutianyugreatwall.net/picture-gallery.php

4 comments:

  1. It seems winter when you visit Mutyaniu... still the surroundings are picturesque. Great photos.

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  2. Hi is this the trip offered by Spring Time Hostel? How long was the whole tour? We're going this December and we might pattern our trip after yours. I was also wondering how you got to the hostel coming from the airport. We're arriving past midnight so i think our only option is to take a cab. Thanks for the input!

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  3. Is this the trip offered by Spring Time Hostel? Yes, you can contact the email below for more details on different tours provided by the hostel.
    Contact: Lee Chun springtimehostel@yahoo.com

    How you got to the hostel coming from the airport? You can use the airport cab (over-priced fares. For us, we have booked a separate hotel nearby the airport, then transfer by train going to the city proper.

    Thanks for your question.

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