Our first full day in Beijing is somewhat of a departure for us. Normally avoiding ANY kind of organisation, especially organised tours, we had taken up the offer from The Orchid and booked a trip out to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. To be fair, this ‘organised‘ trip was just the two of us, but the trip included a private car out to the wall, entrance tickets, cable car ride and a meal. Exploring the possibilities of getting there under our own steam proved a lot more hassle than we thought necessary in the time we had, so it made perfect sense to let someone else sort it out for us. After a great Orchid breakfast, something we enjoyed every morning, our driver appeared as arranged at 08:30 and we headed out through the morning traffic towards the Great Wall. Seeing the signs for Mutianyu, we half expected to catch a glimpse of the Great Wall before we actually arrived, but the spot is so remote and the Wall so high up on the mountains , we didn’t see it until we finally pulled up in the car park and even then it was just a glimpse of a watch tower.
Our driver parked up, beckoned us across the road to the entrance where he purchased all of our tickets. Not speaking any English, he motioned and gestured with enough clarity for us to understand that we would meet him back in the car park whenever it suited us and taking our bundle of tickets we headed to the entrance gate. Passing through the gate and negotiating the tacky gift shops we queued briefly for the shuttle bus up the hill to the cable car station. Steep doesn’t come close to describing the paths ascent to the cable car station and several stops for glances at the scenery were necessary. We passed several people staggering off the bus that looked like they would never even reach the cable car let alone get up to the Wall itself. Sharing our cable car with a old Chinese couple, who had quite obviously never even seen a cable let alone ride one, the woman looked terrified as we bundled in to the moving car and inched away with the doors still open. Our first glimpse of the fast approaching Wall was simply amazing seeing it stretching off in both directions as far as the eye could see, teetering perilously along the top of the mountainous terrain above us. Getting off the cable car at watch tower 14, the Wall was simply breathtaking. As far as you could see either side, the Great wall snaked off up and over the mountains and in to the haze in the distance. It’s enormity is simply overwhelming. How this structure was built is beyond imagination or logic. This section of the Wall was not as busy as we’d expected it to be, with pretty much all the sightseers being non-Chinese, as we discovered later the Chinese are put off by the altitude and steep climbing involved, preferring to visit the less demanding sections at Badaling.
For about 90 minutes we ambled along the wall marvelling at the staggering sights before us and under our feet. Luckily the weather was pretty much perfect with clear blue skies giving us great views in to Mongolia and back in to China. Some of the climb was quite demanding, but in general was very enjoyable and allowed you to just soak in the ambience and greatness of one of the modern wonders of the World. Reaching watch tower six, we decided to take a more alternative route back down the hill and opted to take a toboggan ride. This was really great fun and whizzed us down through the trees and down the hillside in seconds, albeit a lot slower than other toboggan rides we’d ridden in other parts of the World. Dodging the gift sellers at the bottom of the cable car and the bus stop, we found our driver napping in the car. Within a few minutes drive, we were parked up in a restaurant obviously used by every other tour car or party as the car park was full of similar cars to ours and the drivers all seemed to know each other very well. Ushered to a table our driver helped negotiate our menu choices and soon departed back to his car for a nap, leaving us to enjoy a pretty good Chinese meal washed down with a large bottle of Tsing Tao beer.
Once back at the Orchid we had a couple of hours rest before preparing ourselves for an evening of dumpling making with the house chef, Lu Jie.
If you are lucky enough to be planning a trip to the Orchid, you MUST, simply MUST partake in the dumpling making class. Eleven people, some guests, some visitors started the class, with a couple of American guys joining us later on after their taxi had got lost finding the Hutong. Wine flowed. Pastry got made and rolled. Dumplings somehow got made and cooked. But best of all, we all sat around chatting, drinking and eating dumplings like long lost friends who had somehow just met up for the evening from all four corners of the globe. Simply a wonderful evening that will be etched on our memories forever.
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