Beijing:

the Great Wall of China

The first couple of days in China went by real fast as we visited the major sights within Beijing’s city limits. But although we enjoyed touring the capital, we also looked forward to a day far away from the hustle and bustle of the megacity! Finally, we took the bus to Yanqing, approximately 1 hour outside of Beijing, where we were picked up by Mr. Chen of “Great Wall Fresh” (check out his website here). This small home stay is situated in a tiny village and offers excellent food with vegetables grown in their own garden. However, visitors come here mainly because the Great Wall of China passes the neighbouring hills offering plenty of hiking opportunities. We opted for the 3-hour-walk and it was really amazing! The weather was wonderful with a lot of sunshine and a nice breeze to keep us cool. The path atop the unrestored wall allowed for fantastic views across the mountaineous landscape. Although the area is so beautiful and in close proximity to famous (=crowded) Badaling, we met only 3 Chinese visitors during the entire hike. After our return to the village, we had a delicious dinner at Mr. Chen’s homestay, before returning home to Beijing – it really was a perfect day!

hiking to the wall

a giant cicada

Great Wall

Great Wall

a pretty butterfly

hiking along an unrestored patch of wall

hiking along an unrestored patch of wall

hiking along an unrestored patch of wall

an iris on the wall

an iris on the wall

hiking along an unrestored patch of wall

lizard

lizard

an assassin fly

hiking on the wall

the Great Wall of China

ruins of a watch tower

ruins of a watch tower

the Great Wall of China

landscape panorama

view into the distance

the Great Wall of China

On the following day, my girlfriend and me took the train from Beijing to Xining. In the following post, you can find some photographs of the 22-hour long journey as well as from our destination, the capital of Qinghai Province.