Day 3 in China

The early-morning view of Beijing from our hotel room

This may surprise some of you who know our late morning tendencies but we actually woke up at 6:30 am to make it to the Great Wall before the other tourists!

We went to catch a cab from our hotel doorman, but then watched in shock as he let at least 1 Asian take the cab he had flagged for us...we did eventually get a cab and arrived at the Beijing tourist hub at 8:00 am. Unfortunately there was no one in sight but locals doing tai chi and letting their dogs poop on the sidewalk.

Disappointed but still hopeful we would find some help, we walked 15 or so blocks back to Tiananmen Square to try and find the other tourist hub before 8:30am.  Unfortunately, once we got there we didn't find much besides street vendors and uniformed guards who don't speak English. 

After much wandering about looking lost, we found someone offering tours of the Wall.  We struck up a deal after much haggling and walking away, and then we were on our way in a private car! 

An interesting building on our way out of town...

It took about 1 hour to get out of Beijing and to the small villages outside of the Great Wall.  And yes, there was actually a Subway on the way!

Tons of vendors on the way leading up to the footpath of the Great Wall

We opted to climb up the Mutianyu Wall (there were also cable cars) and 45 mins later, after several rest breaks, we were standing on the Wall!  It is truly a wonder of the world and hard to even describe :)

Feeling it...

Still climbing...

After walking along the wall for about an hour the blister on my left foot was starting to ache so I freed Ty to climb as far as he could in 45 minutes, when we had agreed to be back at the car to meet our driver.  I watched him zoom up the steps of the Wall and he actually made it to the point of the Wall with the letters (check out the photo above), while I chilled and took pics with my phone.  I was also the subject of pictures from several Asian men, man was that awkward!

The view from where Ty climbed

A vendor on the Wall gave Ty a Chinese and Canadian flag and a hat to pose with...

We then rode toboggans, yes toboggans, on a metal track all the way back down, then walked back to our driver, who had been waiting for an extra 45 mins (due to the popularity of the toboggans and the SUPER-line).  

We bribed our driver to take us back to our hotel instead of Tiananmen Square and then Ty went on a solo run to get liquor for our movie date...we scrambled over to the Oriental Plaza Mall and had a quick meal of Shrimp Wonton noodles and Veggie noodles (sorry no pics!) before we managed to get tickets to Total Recall.  I almost didn't make it through the movie, even though it was pretty entertaining...

Tomorrow we will tackle the Lama Temple, the Summer Palace and maybe even Belhai Park!

Cheers!