Great Wall of China at Mutianyu

Visiting the Great Wall at Mutianyu

I had booked a car and driver to take us to the Mutianyu Great Wall.  For four people, it was a good deal compared to taking a car to the departure point of a tour coach to the Great Wall and back.

The standard itinerary was for a 0900 departure but the organiser had tried yesterday to convince us that 0600 would be best to avoid the traffic and queues.  After hearing their reasoning, we decided on a departing at 0700 without taking breakfast at the hotel.

We stopped at a simple place en route at 0745 for a breakfast of various fried and steamed dumplings before reaching Mutianyu at 0830.

We scanned in with our passports and walked to the shuttle bus which took us uphill a little.  Having chosen the cable car route to Tower 14 today, we had to walk uphill to the cable car station to commence the ride around 0915.

Once at the upper station, we took our time heading west one tower at a time.  We didn’t think we would make it very far but when we got to Tower 19 at 1000, it was pretty much a piece of cake.

Much of the section of the Great Wall between Tower 19 to Tower 20 was closed for restoration but a permanent addition appeared to have been built to allow keener visitor to walk up to Tower 20.

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Making our way back, we faced the oncoming crowd that chose to depart later from Beijing.  At bottlenecks such as narrow passages in the tower, we were rubbing shoulders with them.

We got to the upper station of the cable car around 1045 for our ride down.  We completed our visit feeling that we had chosen the best departure time from the hotel.

We managed to do everything we wanted on the tower in over 1h15.  Our total time from entry to finish was about 2h30 excluding the time we spent afterwards enjoying a Vietnamese sandwich.

Our visit seems quite short and superficial for a site that has a history of over 2000 years old and had played such an important role in protecting the empire from northern invasions.

Back in Beijing

Around 1200, we commenced our journey by car back to Beijing.  We didn’t feel like going to the Bird’s Nest and aquatic stadium which was included on the standard itinerary.

So, D organised to have us dropped off at the SKP Mall for a wander and a light lunch of sushi.  He also took us to another mall SKP South afterwards, which wasn’t very interesting.

By now, Jo had had enough of walking as we had trouble finding the pedestrian route to the second mall.  We ordered a car to take us about 1km back to the hotel.

It was around 1445 when we got to our room for a rest.  While Jo and I rested till dinner time, D and Kim went out to a car dealership to do some tyre-kicking.

They returned in time for dinner at a simple place of my choosing across the road.  As we’re off to Pakistan soon, we decided that we would have some beer with our dinner.  The meals were cheap, cheerful and delicious.

We finished the day at the Bird’s Nest and aquatic stadium.  It was a good decision to visit at night when both were lit up.