I spent my last day in Beijing hiking along the Great Wall, which undoubtedly ranks among the coolest hikes I will ever do. It's one of the few famous tourist attractions I've ever seen that lives up to the hype.

Some local hostels took a busload of Westerners to an area of the wall called Jinshanling, promising to pick us up at another area called Simatai, which is about a 10 km hike further down the wall. As we arrived at Jinshanling, a woman that we had picked up somewhere along the four-hour ride started selling tickets. When we discovered that these tickets were not entry tickets for Jinshanling but alleged "exit tickets" for Simatai, a young British woman insisted that we all demand our money back. Her Rough Guide had warned her about this scam. After some hesitation, the mysterious ticket seller did refund our money, and we all started on our merry way.

It became clear only after they started following us up the wall that the cluster of locals near the entrance were hawkers, offering postcards, books, water and Coke. They hiked up the wall with surprising speed and perseverance for little old ladies. A Canadian named Steve and I left them in the company of some of the slower tourists and forged on ahead (although we did encounter a few more lurking in watch towers along the way). The restored section at Jinshanling gave way to crumbling ruins, where we clambered out of watch towers and treaded carefully over one section no more than ten inches wide. The surrounding scenery is impressive, but the feeling of walking on that most famous of landmarks, the Great Wall itself, is fantastic.

Eventually, we reached another restored section, where a man wearing a less-than-impressive name tag again offered to sell us Simatai tickets. Steve and I pushed past, insisting that we were not going to pay. The Simatai section includes a steel rope bridge over a little canyon, where Steve argued over the 5RMB toll before relenting. Just beyond the bridge, we headed down to the Simatai parking lot to wait for the others. Had we continued on, we would have climbed some of the Great Wall's steepest sections, perched atop high, narrow ridges.

When everyone had piled into the bus for the return home, the Simatai ticket salesman climbed onto the bus along with a man dressed in the uniform of Beijing Security. "Tickets, please," he commanded. But the British woman held her ground, insisting that the much-abused, often-conned backpacking class should be fleeced yet again by greedy Capitalist Roader locals. For half an hour, we sat at a standstill, while the British woman refused (on everybody's behalf) to pay, the salesman and alleged security officer refused to exit the bus, and the driver refused to start driving. Unfortunately, this is the New China, and the Capitalist Roaders won. We all coughed up the paltry fee and headed home, perhaps just late enough for me to miss my train to Pingyao...