‘Secret’ Wall Tour
OK, after hearing about the ‘Secret’ Wall tour from Leo’s Hostel in Beijing from multiple sources. I couldn’t decide whether to travel all the way back up to Beijing then all the way down to Shenzhen just to go on this hike, but my father texted me and said that he was going to be in Beijing the following week before he headed back to the States. Since I don’t know when I am going “home”, I don’t know when I’d get a chance to see my father again. So, I figured Shanghai really isn’t all that far from Beijing and decided that I’d make the 14 hour journey to take the 5 hour hike along an unrestored part of the Great Wall 
away from Badaling and all the hawkers and tourists. The last time I was there 14 years ago, I was not really that impressed. It was a really good wall, but Great? I don’t know. The tour was described to me as a tough hike along broken down parts of the wall for about 3 hours and about 2 hours hiking back towards the guides house along a stream. That was pretty much all we did. The hike itself was a bit hairy at points, but well worth the trouble. It was beautiful! Nature has a way of reclaiming it’s own. Trees and plants have started growing within the wall causing it to fall over. Sections of the wall have completely crumbled while other parts seem like they could still fend off a barbarian raid. Our guide was the younger of the two guides that run this tour. 
His father 80 years old also leads the tour on his days off. 
We had a typical UN group of 4 Brits and an interesting brother and sister from Holland. They spoke a very interesting version of Cantonese and Dutch. Sorta like Cantonese with a potato stuck in your mouth. LOL Sorry Shirley and Him. We also had a couple Spanish guys that I ran into again in Macau on the street as we we were trying to get to the Guia Fortress. A French guy, Pierre, that I met the day before in Tianamen square when I thought he was going to get pickpocketed by a Chinese girl trying to practice her English. I thought it was very funny when Pierre pointed to the pond and said there is an animal in the water, but I can’t remember it’s name in English. After straining to see it, I started laughing when I saw it was a frog. Now, how can a Frenchman not know the word for Frog. LOL Sorry, Pierre. 
A few people slipped a little, but no real injuries. I took a before picture, but after a long day of driving back and forth to the wall and hiking, I forgot to take the after. It was tiring, but it was great visiting The Wall and not having thousands of tourists all around. We only actually saw 1 other group of people walking the other direction on our way out. Essentially, this hike cost me about 2000 RMB or $250 if you figure in the train up and flight down, but in the end it was all worth it to finally take a tour where we didn’t have any “rest” stops and no one tried to sell us anything.
Tags: Beijing, Travel
Kane
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