The Great Wall

We started our day early with breakfast at 7:30am.  The day was forecast to be in the low 80's with plenty of sunshine as we headed to the Great Wall at Mutianyu.  This section of the Great Wall is a bit further out than the popular Badaling site and as a result not nearly as crowded.  Two of my co-workers based in Beijing served as our hosts for the day - Hans Jia with his wife Yun Fei and Johnny Wang with his girlfriend Zoe.  Hans is our Beijing regional sales manager and Johnny is our Applications Engineer - neither of them speak a lot of English but they do understand quite a bit.  Fortunately their partners were very fluent so we had no trouble communicating.  The drive to the Wall was just under one hour and we arrived around 10 am in the mountainous region of Mutianyu.  The sky was crystal blue with large white puffy clouds.  We were among the first hikers to arrive and made our way past the throngs of vendors promising us "cheaper price" for trinkets and souvenirs of all types.  We escaped with only buying a hat for Landon since he had forgotten his.  The initial hike to the wall is a quarter mile of marble slab stairs that rise at what seems to be a 45 degree angle.  There were many rest stops along the way which we took full advantage of as well as vendors selling ice water and postcards (didn't take advantage of this however).  We finally arrived at the #10 Watch Tower and then proceeded with a 5 km hike to the end of the restored section that was at the #20 Watch Tower.  We literally climbed a mountain and the views were spectacular.  We stopped for a picnic lunch before a particularly grueling incline at one of the watch towers that had a nice breeze flowing through the stone arched portals.  We shared a meal of bologna, chips, juice, bananas and assorted dried fruits.  We finally made "the big climb" to reach the summit where at times you were literally climbing with hands and feet up 800 year old steps  that were at a crazy angle.  At the top there was a Chinese vendor who hikes to the top every morning laden with trinkets, frozen bottles of water, beer and tea.  I rewarded his daily constitution with the purchase of a lukewarm beer and a souvenir for Landon.  The hike down was much quicker but a bit more perilous especially for Cynthia whose knee was beginning to feel the wear and tear of Mutianyu.  We all took turns helping her in the steep downhills and we all made it to the cable cars to take the "easy way" down the mountain.  On the way home we stopped at a "fishing" restaurant where you pick out your fish in a large pool and the guy then literally "fishes" them out of the pond with a net and takes them straight to the kitchen.  We enjoyed an excellent meal with our friends and then headed home around 4:30 pm.  Back at the hotel Cynthia and decided that we all needed foot massages and so we located the local massage center just a few blocks away and treated the boys to their first foot massage.  It was $14 each for a 70 minute massage that included a back rub, herbal foot bath, heated rock-filled back and neck pillows and of course the foot massage that really is a leg massage from the knees down.  This was just what we all needed and even shy Landon gave it a thumbs up!  I treated us all to ice cream at McDonalds and we were all in bed asleep by 10pm.  It was a great day and one that will be remembered for a long time.  Hope you enjoy the photos.