Dorothy's diary The Great Wall

Alan on the Great Wall at Mutianyu

Tuesday 19^th May

The shower in our new room didn’t have any hot water as someone had turned the dial off, fortunately we had a shower last night so we managed with a wash.

We got up early as we wanted to say goodbye to Laziz. He should have been staying in Beijing for a few days but he had received an email to say he had to go to Cheng du for some training. The journey will take about 28hours on a hard sleeper train which isn’t very comfortable, 6 people to a carriage and no door.

Our tour to the great wall was due to start at 10.00a.m. and our guide arrived early at 9.45a.m. The mini bus arrived and we set off to pick up the other three people who were going with us. A couple from Reading were the first to join us. We started talking to them and discovered that John had lived in Hoyland as a baby, talk about a small world. (Hoyland is the town near Barnsley where I was brought up, and where we lived until 1994)

We then picked up a young Swedish man and we set off for Mu tian yu. The journey took about two hours. It was not very busy so we were able to take the cable car straight away.

I wanted to buy a fan as it was very hot. We had to barter and the lady was very insistent that she could do a good deal on two fans. Eventually we got what we wanted ONE FAN.

On to the cable car and up to the wall. It is quite a difficult climb as the ground is not very even. There are steps and slopes and even though we were climbing, some of the wall is a downward slope. We walked from stage 14 to stage 19. Up to stage 20 would have been very difficult, it was a very steep climb and we really didn’t have the time. Ewan had left us early and managed to get to stage 20. We were pleased with ourselves that we had managed as much as we had.

On the way back to the city, our guide said that included in the tour was a visit to a Chinese Health centre. We arrived and were given a talk about the difference between western and Chinese medicine. We were then offered a foot massage which four of us accepted. While having the foot massage a doctor came and gave us a free medical consultation. It was very interesting and both Alan and I took advantage of the advice and bought the products that were advised. We are going to start using them when we get to San Francisco.

Back to the hotel and then off for something to eat. We haven’t had a meal at all today.

It was easy to go to KFC.

Off to bed now as we have another early start tomorrow.