Climbing the Great Wall of China - Part 1

As Darryl and I prepared to return home to the USA we knew there were still a couple of things we needed to see before we left The Republic of China. First and foremost on this list was the Great Wall. Please click on the pictures so they will enlarge and you can see the real beauty of the wall here. I have so many pictures I will have to put them in 2 posts.
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Now when you go to Beijing and ask about seeing "The Great Wall" the first consideration needs to be how much time do you have. 

If you only have a few hours and will probably never come to China again, then by all means, go see the wall at Badaling. But, if you have a day to spend, look up the other locations online or at a Tourist Bureau and take an out of town trip to see the Wall. 

The Tourist Bureau had a very reasonably priced trip, about $32 a person, to the Wall at Jinshanling. I am so glad we did this tour. A van picked us up at our hotel and we then transferred to a motor coach for the 2 hour ride north to Jinshanling.

The vistas were stunning as we had great views of the mountainous terrain surrounding Beijing.

Unlike Badaling, which is generally packed with people, there were no large crowds and since we decided to walk the half mile up to the wall rather than take a tram, we had no lines to wait in as we traversed the path.

The Entrance at the West Gate.

The souvenir T-shirts all claim "I climbed the Great Wall at Jinshanling". Now I know why.

You are either going up or down on this 5 kilometers (3+ miles) hike of the wall. There is nothing flat on the ridge of these mountains where the wall is built.

Our "guide" spoke to us on the bus and said that The Great Wall of China is the longest cemetery in the world. The figures range from 400,000 to one million people died while building the wall and were buried within it.

Below is our entrance to the great wall. Yep, that's about as crowded as it got.

You can see the new construction on this part of the wall where it has been rebuilt. Later you will see photos of the deterioration of parts of the wall. Some sections have been maintained pretty well, others, because of their remote locations, not so much.

Yes, proof we were really there. I'm so glad we were in good physical condition, because it was quite the hike.

Enjoy the photos. I will put more up tomorrow.

Stay tuned for part two.