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The Great Wall

Badaling Travel Blog › entry 9 of 12 › view all entries

Finally we went to the land of my husband's anchestor, China!

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The Great Wall

March 23, 2008

Black bears were many around the Great Wall.

At last, we came to Great Wall. There are several entry points along this giant wall: Mutianyu, Badaling, Simatai, Jinshanling, Juyongguan, and so on. We came to Badaling section, the most touristic entry point of the Great Wall. When we visited this place, it was the end of winter so the view was in total grey. I think The Great Wall was best to see during summer where all the trees are green and the sky is chrystal clear.

The were a sliding rail that lies around a small area of the Great Wall. I read from the Lonely Planet that we should avoid buying tickets for this slide as it's a colossal waste of money. The guide forced us to buy the tickets but we refused.

I learned that if you climb the Great Wall until the highest point, they will give you a medal as a notification that you conquered this massive wall.

The green line was the sliding rail.

My mom did not want to climb the Great Wall at all. She was satisfied by only reached the first platform and sat-down there nicely. Maybe I will do the same if I reached her age :)

On the other hand, my mother in law was very enthusiastic to climb it together with Rara. So, they moved ahead far away from us. At certain point, I had to call them back because I was afraid they would be too tired to finish the trip to go down.

We spent a lot of time buying shirts and other gifts for family, friends, neighbours, and relatives. The guide got angry coz we were running out of time to visit one of the mandatory visit to silk market. He moved to the front seat in the car and busy calling every single shops that may still open just to make sure he got money by funnel us through one of these shops.

I just want to quote what it was written in the Lonely Planet China Guide: When choosing a tour, it is essential to check that the tour goes to where you want to go. Other tours make painful and expensive diversions to jade factories, gem exhibition halls and Chinese medicine centres. At the latter, tourists are herded off the bus and analysed by white-coated doctors, who diagnoseailments that can only be cured with high-priced Chinese remedies (supplied there and then). The tour organisers receive a commission from the jade showroom/medicine centre for every person they manage to funnel through, so you are simply lining other people's pockets. When booking a tour, it is essential to check that such scams and unnecessary diversions are not on the itinerary.

Finally, the guide could find one shop that still opened. It was a Tea House. So, we sat down there and listened to a short brief. We bought a big jar of tea just to remember China with these forced visits.