The Great wall- China (Mutianyu).

Life is funny sometimes.  At least now I can say I've been on the Great Wall of China (ok, one part of it).  My friend and I originally wanted to visit Jingshanling, but we missed our flight in Hong Kong to Beijing (we were coming from Macau the night before, but our plan ended badly as many ferries were cancelled and we couldn't get on until the next morning when our flight was at ~ 8am). 

​Needless to say, we spent the night at the ferry station (I guess some lessons must be learned the hard way).   At least we had a taxi driver that got us to the HK airport in record time (let's just say we offered him a monetary amount he couldn't resist).

So after finding out that our plane had already departed, we decided to purchase a new ticket on the spot for the next flight out.   It's really not economical to do this, and I don't recommend anyone doing the same unless you really have to.     The original airline we had originally booked with (HK Airlines) would have charged to change flight times anyways but their next one wouldn't be available till many hours later so it wouldn't work for us.  (HK Airlines actually has a reputation for having lots of delayed flights...this was the ONE time I really wished it happened to us).

We decided on buying  new tickets because our Beijing guide was already fully booked on the other days we were there, and we wanted to make the most of what's left for the day.   So the next departing flight was via Air China (within the next hour); not to be confused with China Airline which I really like.    Air China's staff was really nice, but the planes were really old school (the type with CRT monitors dangling from the ceiling). 

Once we sorted our new flight details, I got in-touch with our guide and they suggested that we go to Mutianyu instead of Jingshanling, as we would not make it otherwise.   It turned out to be a good compromise as we could still catch the sunset on the Wall, and still see parts that were original.  

We landed after 2pm+ in the afternoon.   But after being picked up at the airport and being whisked away to the Wall, there was still about 1 1/2-2 hours drive before arriving.    The good news is there were actually blue skies (for the next day as well).  The bad news was we were running on no sleep.

​Going to the Wall was never really high on my list, because it didn't seem all that interesting in pictures.  But, standing on the Wall in person makes me overcome with emotions.   I was kind of in disbelief for a moment when it hit me that something so massive was possible.  I tried to imagine how the Chinese soldiers must have felt when they were stationed here.  Then sadness dawn on me when it hit how many lives were lost during it's construction. 

I believe we were the last ones to be let into the park.   To save energy (as we barely had an hour of sleep the previous night).   We took a lift (gondola) up then walked down most of the way.  The steps were kind of deceiving.  It looks like a walk in the park, yet they were spaced really wide apart so by the time we got to the main entrance, I was out of breath.   (I was very amused to see our guide running up the stairs like nothing.)

By the time of the sunset, we practically had the wall to ourselves (all of the big tour groups leaves at 5 pm).   Watching the sunset from the Wall was like looking at a landscape painting that never ends.

Overall, I'm really glad to have visited.  It was quite a profound and memorable experience.
The weather was great as well so I couldn't ask for more.

Map showing different sections of the Wall. Photo credit: ChinaHighlights.com. We would have loved to go to Jiankou (but difficulty was way too much for us, and we really wanted to come back alive).