On Saturday, Scott organized a babysitter for the whole day, hired a driver to drive us to an unrestored section (Jiankou) of the Great Wall near Beijing. In our travel book it said that it was "for serious hikers only" and it lived up to that. Here are some pictures to give you some impressions of our time.
I really liked the symbolism of this shot, such contrast.
At the highest point of our hike there was a man selling firecrackers. A lot of people like to set them off in China, anytime, anywhere for many reasons. Why not at the highest point of a particular section of the Great Wall?
Here was one of the more precarious parts of our hike, if you look closely, you may be able to tell that the bottom of the ladder is no longer fixed to anything, so it was a bit shaky, but we knew it was sound because we had just passed someone hiking in the other direction.
It is a lot more exciting to hike the unrestored sections of the Great Wall. Sometimes you have to figure out how to get from A to B. Here we had to come down through an opening in the top of this tower ad then crawl through the space where Scott is crouching.
And it was nice and steep, good exercise, excellent weather, beautiful views, cleaner air. I really couldn't have asked for a more fun and full day.
This was at the start of the Great Wall portion of our hike, although we needed to hike about an hour and a half to reach this point. My brother Albert will have to critique my technique in this picture, I know something is definitely lacking!
This is on the way up towards the Wall. Apparently someone sleeps here sometimes!
Here is a praying mantis I almost stepped on. Quite a good size, about the length of my middle finger. Very camouflaged, except the green underside caught my eye against the rock background.
And just beyond this sign, quite a well-travelled trail to the Great Wall.
Where our driver dropped us off, the village had springs of water in which they farmed fish (red snappers I believe). Our driver said the eggs for these fish were imported which explained why they were going for quite a hefty price..
We ended up at a restored section of the Wall called Mutianyu at about 1830, and then rested our jello legs during the drive into Beijing for something to eat. We went out for dinner at a Tex-Mex Restaurant with a real down home-like family atmosphere, complete with wandering toddlers and friendly servers. They served good-size portions and we were glad because we were ravenous! We got home at about 2300, but what an awesome day it was!
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On Sunday, we relaxed, played with the kids and later went over to a friend's place for what I thought was going to be a low-key dinner with friends. Well, it turned out to be a surprise party! Lots of people were there including my Chinese teachers and some neighbours! Scott really outdid himself, even organizing a big game of Pictionary, dividing the group into teams and using a massive whiteboard to draw on. You just have to have games and/or karaoke at a party like this. It was so much fun, I think I'll turn thirty more often!
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