There are various prices to go the the Great Wall and different sections to visit. We were offered £90 driven in private car and 2 hours on the wall. We got a good deal £10 each picked up at the hotel there were 6 other people. They showed us a Jade Factory and then onto the Wall, Mutianyu location.We took the cable car up it was very impressive and the amazing thing not many people on the wall we took photos of no one around. We had seen photos taken in the summer time and you can not move so winter time is the time to visit here. The sections are steep and the steep height varies from little steps to Penny crawling up on the steps on her hands and knees or with my assistance. Most people were struggling to a degree and Penny did bloody well to get to from Watch Tower 15 up to #1 and then she returned to #6 where she descended down the pathway her choice and I carried on back to Watch tower #15 and I took the cable car I think Penny was annoyed her route was as long as mine. Some of the others did 15 to 20 basically it was left to right.
We purchased the T shirt each I climbed the Gt Wall should have been the Gt Wall fucked Penny. This morning she could not get out of bed her calf muscles were rock hard and aching. It was a great achievement -4C and the sweat was pouring off me, my thermals were wet through. We spent 4 hours on there and that was a a good amount of time. The bus took us back to the hotel and we collected our bags and headed off to the Howard Johnson Hotel. Where we had stayed the people were friendly but no one could speak English. The drains in the bathroom were smelling like a sewer not acceptable to us and not geared up for Europeans. In the HJ lovely big room no smells but very warm we tried to drop the temperature low would not work. Rang reception and all the could do was open the wind to our relief. I had done a lot of hand washing and in the morning it was all dried.
Penny was not in the best shape to do much so I went off and found the International Post Office which people were giving me the wrong directions, which was a bit annoying as I have the flu again. Got a quote to sent about 15kg parcel box, ship it back 3 months £52. So we organised our bags when I got back and it is amazing how much we bought which we have not used. Not worth bringing smart clothes. Penny’s 2 pair of boots a bunch of T shirts and some souvenirs and clothes. We will get a taxi to the place to post the gear at 09:00, get back to the hotel and we will put all the gear we need for 5 days away to Harbin and Shenyang into 1 bag and leave the other bag back at the hotel and we will pick it up after Shenyang as we are going through to Datong via Beijing.
Penny booked a visit to the theater to watch Chinese acrobatics. Got picked up by car and 30 minutes later we arrived. They have popcorn there so Penny needed some. The show last for an hour and it was amazing what they got up too. You could not take photos or videos during the performance. Penny was sat next to a biggish Eastern European woman and they were having elbow issues and Penny got really annoyed and told the woman stop being rude. I got up and told Penny to swap with me and I sat down, another woman said are you going to cause a fight I replied no. The woman did not fuck with me and Penny was happy. After the show driven back to the hotel, I am feeling shite with this cold again, hopefully sleep better tonight. We have a 21:21 train to Harbin tomorrow night sharing a 4 berth compartment, should be interesting. Got to check out at 12:00 so going to be a long day.
Maurice's Travel 