Day 12 — The Great Wall.
Started the day off right by getting some snacks from 7–11. Rice ball wrapped with seaweed and stuffed with shrimp!
A normal 1.5 car ride from Beijing took about 3 hours due to traffic. But no matter, views were worth it.
We went to Badaling section of the great wall, which is also probably the most popular and crowded. We rode a cable car from the base to the top of this “hill” where we started at tower 7 of the trail.
We started hiking all the way to tower 12 (the end of the Badaling section). This day was INSANELY hot. About 100 degrees Fahrenheit. No shade. A few clouds in that sky. Not even smog to give us some cover.
One of the first things you’ll notice is how steep some parts are. Some are almost a 60–70 degree incline (basically straight up or down). Some parts don’t even have stairs and just some slippery pavement. My Nike tennis shoes even had trouble gripping the slippery and steep surface.
Your legs start dying after tower 10/11. And this isn’t even on the way back. Just remember everything you do, you do twice as you have to head back to tower 7!
This was probably one of the steepest parts. You can see everyone holding the handrails. If you fall, theres pretty nothing to slow your tumble down.
The tower on the left hand side was tower 12 and I’m happy to say we all made it. And back. We did however make the mistake of not bringing enough water. 3 bottles? Probably want to double it to 5/6 bottles. On the way back we were all dying. Luckily, we found a shortcut around tower 9 that led us back to the concessions stand. Never has ¥12 water tasted so good (normal price is ¥2).
Afterwards, our driver was nice enough to take us around to the site of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. This was the iconic birds nest stadium. Honestly, not much around in this area but doesn’t hurt to see if you booked a driver and car and have extra time.
Overall, we booked a car for ¥1000 for 9 hours. We paid for a few tolls and parking and also ended tipping him, for a grand total of ¥1200 for a van that could seat 6 comfortably. He was also a very nice guy and drove us about 40 minutes past our 9 hours. I unfortunately don’t know his number or website but I would plug his services if I could!
At the end, he dropped us off at a very scenic lake.
Lots of boats and people. A relaxing way to end a physically intensive great wall hike.
