Dennis Wright's Blog

Next morning we set out from Beijing to visit a restored part of the Great Wall, at Badaling. We had been warned to take jackets as it can be quite cold. It was warm and most of the time we carried our jackets about.

The car park is at a dip in the undulating path that the Wall takes as it wends its way up hills and down into valleys. We had a choice: the very steep section up to the next watchtower to our right, or a less challenging climb to the left? The steeper climb promised more spectacular views and most people were going that way. We looked hard at that daunting climb, took a deep breath and followed the other sheep.

People were in general very excited about being on the Great Wall of China. There was a small group of American students and one girl just had to leap up and yell “Yay! I’m on the Great Wall of China!”.

Naomi was excited about it too, but didn’t leap up and yell. Better idea, let’s text the kids. But it’s the middle of the night for them, I protested. Ah, but this is their only chance in a long time to receive a text from the Great Wall of China. They’ll think it was worth the brief interruption to their sleep. And the texts were duly sent. Jonathan got his revenge by texting us in the middle of the following night. Our night that is. Late afternoon for him. Serves us right I suppose.

We made it to the next watchtower and looked back at where we’d come from.

Note: The video below is high bitrate. Playing time 1:33.

We were warned that getting back down was even harder work than climbing up. It’s true. The steps are not all the same height so it is hard to get into a rhythm. It feels very awkward.