After a train ride to Beijing, a night in a hostel, a bus ride, and then a car ride, we arrived at what people say is perhaps the best preserved, least Disneyfied portion of the Great Wall. It’s also virtually deserted. We hiked for over five hours, and if we don’t count the TV crew filming a Jackie Wu game show, we only saw maybe 10-15 other people. Most of the time we were alone in the blessed silence of the crumbly wall and the denuded hills.
Things to look for (that aren’t self-explanatory):
- Jessica and Natalie being civilized comrades and lining up next to the bus stop’s line-up sign.
- Jackie Wu’s TV game show film crew. We didn’t realize he was super-famous when we met him, or even what his name was, but everyone was friendly. Thankfully the film crew was staying put, so we quickly left all that commotion behind.
- A village woman hiking through the hills, and a village man selling souvenirs on the wall. Villagers hike windy trails up and down the hills carrying drinks and souvenirs to sell to tourists on the wall. We only saw a handful over the 5+ hours. One followed us for a while, so when we stopped for a snack we shared some goodies.
You can read about this little adventure here:
Photos from our first Great Wall trip are here:
Scroll down to read or write comments!
Those are amazing photos guys…thanks a bunch!
Thanks! But I just discovered that the photo slideshow thing doesn’t show right if you’re using Internet Explorer (so annoying!). But everything works fine in Firefox.
are there only 4 pics? when i click on the arrow it doesnt do anything.. .. is is cause I have a mac? we use firefox.. hummm..
love the ones i can see! so cool!
There are 54 photos. It “should” work on Macs. There are two arrows – if you mouseover the right side of the photo, you should see another arrow appear. Also, it loads the other photos while you’re looking at the first ones, so if you try to advance too fast then it might make you wait. Or maybe it’s because you’re on a Mac. I don’t know. Try letting it load and then click the on the right half of the big photo?
well.. I clicked and waited and it didnt work.. i will talk with joel tomorrow and see if he nows a trick to get it to work.. 54 photos! wow.. I am missing a LOT! :)
read your update.. hope classes are good :) ..
hugs
r
Ruth, let me know what Joel says. If it’s a problem with my photo deal (and not just a setting on your computer), then I’ll just start using Picasa and put the photos off-site. I’ve had it up to *HERE!* with trying to find a stupid photo solution for this blog that doesn’t require technical computer code know-how.
If Joel can’t make it work, try this.
yippeeeeeeee!!!!
I got to see them all!
SWeeeeeeet!
so, how did you see them? on the blog or at Picasa?
I had the same problem with the slideshow, and I’m on a Mac and have Firefox too… what I had to do was go through the first set of four by manually advancing–clicking on the actual thumbnails at the bottom of the screen… THEN I was able to use the directional arrows to go BACKWARDS through the first 4 again… then, I could use the arrow to go forward, and as long as I didn’t move my mouse once it got going, it worked. I don’t know… it’s rather like Jess’s old orange truck where you had to turn the ignition twice to the right and once to the left, insert the screwdriver just right, and bite your lip. It works, once you get the rigamarole down.
I’m so confused. But it worked? What should I tell the other Mac users?
Is this the bit from Jinshanling to Simatai? It looks a lot like it and if it is I hiked this in 2006 and it’s ace. I was really impressed with how it stretches away and it’s not really repaired that much at all after the first 10 mins either end. I stayed in a gatehouse then at like half 6 in the morning went for the hike along the wall and apart from me and 2 other people who also stayed in the gatehouses we didn’t meet people until nearly 10am when we were near Simatai.
I want to go to the Tianjin Great Wall Huangyaguan as I’ve heard it’s not very disneyfied but no-one is very clear how to get there in a way that could go there and return in one day.
wow, these are GREAT photos!
I think I’ll put “camp on the GW” on my list of trip options, AFTER the games.
about the warning not to use telecom devices during a thunderstorm: put this in the “for your safety” file. Its basis is the possibility that, atop the ridge, your electronic device could attract lightning, and act as a lightning rod in a thunderstorm.
Just to clear things up, these photos are of the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai. Harder to get to but much less Mickey Mouse-ified, as you can see from the photos. We didn’t camp here, though people have.
The part we camped on is attached to Huangyaguan, closer to Tianjin. It’s fully restored, with a tourist town in the middle of two sections of wall. It’s nice, safer, interesting, with good scenery, but it is full restored. There are a couple places where they leave some patches un-rebricked so you can see what I assume are the original stones.
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