The Great Wall
So today we had planned to get up bright and breezy and tackle the 3 hour public transport route to The Great wall. We set our alarm for 6.30am, but we had woke up at 3.00am again and had pretty much been up since then. So when the alarm went off we was in no mood to get up and it was still pitch black outside so we looked up the sunrise and it was at 8 am so we snoozed till 7.30am then groggily got ourselves out of bed. We managed to get down for breakfast at 8.00am and Clarice got the vegetarian breakfast that was muesli, yogurt, fresh fruits, two slices of toast and jam/butter and tea all for 29 CY and I went for the continental breakfast and got two slices of toast butter/jam, two eggs (scrambled), orange juice and a cup of tea, that was also 29 CY around £2.90.
We had looked up all the different ways of getting to The Great Wall, we decided on getting two busses the no. 5 a short walk from where we was staying for about an hour then the No. 877 for about 2 hours. The previous day we had found the bus stop where the No. 5 stopped so we made our way there and waited we wasn’t quite sure if we as the right stop for travelling towards our stop DeShengMen, but it was a one way road so there wasn’t a stop the other side, we asked as we got on bus but the minute your on the bus the doors close and your going there was slight confusing, then we showed the ticket lady the stop name on a phone and she replied no then started talking in Chinese and directing forwards and left with her arms the next stop was quite a way down the road but she let us off without paying.
When we got off we walked right down to then end of the road and turned left (after going the wrong way for a bit) and found ourselves on a massive dual carriage way and needing to be on the other side of the road, there was a footbridge across the road where Clarice proceeded to scream and run across cause she is scared of heights whereas I wanted to stop and take pictures. We finally found our bus stop and paid our 2 CY (20p) when our bus arrived. We knew the name of where was had to get off but didn’t know how it was pronounced in Chinese so we looked out for the big green busses that where the busses to The Great Wall.
I spotted the busses and we got off luckily at the right stop the bus completely emptied out at this stop so it was obviously popular for people going to The Great Wall, although we was completely the only Foreigners on the bus everyone else was Chinese. We got off and found a stop that said 877 and there was another Chinese family there who was on our No. 5 bus so we thought we must be in the right place. We had just missed a 877 by the looks of it so stood waiting as we waited we got hassled by taxi drivers asking us “Great Wall! Great Wall! I take you Badaling” using translation app on his phone quoting us 240 CY when the bus we was waiting for was only 12 CY. He then begum to hassle the Chinese family. Me and Clarice then realised we was at the wrong bus station so started to walk around to find the right one the other Chinese family soon caught up then we figured out the correct bus stop from the crowds. We managed to get on the bus that was just leaving as there was only two of us although we had to sit separately but we was just happy to be inside in some sort of warmth.
The Great Wall, Badaling. Badaling is the most famous section of the wall for tourists to visit as it has 15 watchtowers one of them being the highest point on The Great Wall, There is the south wall and the north wall. We had decided when we got there that we would do the south wall because it was only 5 watchtowers long and was supposed to be a gentler slope and slower easier climb, we had a long day up till here and was freezing our buts off in -5 C weather!!! So we started to climb it then realised as we got to the first watchtower we was actually on the north wall how we got this wrong I don’t know but we decided to just keep on going, we only managed to reach the 5th watchtower but we was frozen and Clarice was getting pretty scared at this hight with 22 mph winds hitting us and we was both completely knackered. So we decided to call it day and go back down.
We got to the 877 bus stop and then within ten minuets we was on a bus and leaving happy to be in warmth, we arrived at the bus station where we got the No. 5 bus (luckily the 877 is just a one stop all the way there bus for Great Wall) found the stop where we thought was the right way for 5 bus. The No. 5 bus arrived and we asked the ticket lady again if we was going the wright way then we realised we didn’t have the name of our hostel in Chinese but I found the map in my pocket from the previous day the lady looked at it pointed several times at where was staying with us saying yes then laughed out loud and said something in Chinese, my interpretation was that she was amazed at how far two white girls had got on Chinese public transport not speaking a word of Chinese.
I was so proud of us for getting to The Great Wall completely on our own and even Chinese people get lost and don’t know where there going (shoutout to our Chinese family we befriended) then it’s quite difficult but if we managed to do it anyone can do it.
No. 5 bus 2 CY
No. 877 bus 12 CY
Great Wall entry fee 35 CY
No. 877 bus 12 CY
No. 5 bus 2 CY
Total whole day = 63 CY (£6.30)
Tour company wanted 750 CY (£75.00)
