This morning I researched how to get to the great wall. All the forums I could find strongly advise a private driver (frequent flyer forums) or an organised tour bus (cheap ass virtualtourist forums).
Neither of these sounded good to me, for every recommendation there were stories of drivers abandoning people in the middle of nowhere, busses that didnt even go to the great wall or went there for 10 minutes and then onto the jade factory etc.
Even taking the public transport bus seems difficult, as you end up lining up in a fake line that turns out to be for a private mini bus where they charge you a fortune to go to the silk market on the way.
I decided to go by train, you would think this would be well organised and easy, but no. First I go to Beijing North station, they dont even let you inside this place.
There are no signs explaining where the trains are going, what ticket to buy, schedules etc, the only info I had to go on was 'S2'.
So I lined up in the line for S2. For an hour. I could see a woman at the counter, manually stamping tickets. A crush of people formed when she came to the window. It seems the well organised buy in advance scenario does not apply for S trains, you line up, get a ticket, and then get on the train.
I had to make a decision, go now, or come back and do this again tomorrow, you cant buy a ticket in advance!
I got to the head of the line and asked what time the next train went, I was informed it left in an hour from now, I was also confused that the cost was less than $1!
I decided to buy a ticket and see what happens next.
Quickly I went to a nearby mall and had lunch, I also had to buy a jacket, I wasnt planning on going today so didnt bring mine, but since the great wall is on a mountain and today is already the coldest day since I arrived, I needed a jacket. Luckily I found a horrible thing to wear in the mall for $9, expensive by Chinese standards.
To get to Beijing north station, required changing subway 3 times. Out the window of this train is not posters, its a moving LED display that moves at the same time as the train carriage. It is pretty amazing.
This is my train ticket. It has no info about where it goes, what time, seat numbers etc. I later found out that you buy an S2 ticket and its valid for any S2 train to any destination on that line for that day only, the date is stamped on it.
Heres where I had my lunch, a lot of people talk about the poor food standards in China. I havent really experienced that, most places are like this one, where the chefs are on display preparing your food.
My lunch, some rice noodles with massive amounts of delicious MSG.
Back to the station after buying my jacket and some lunch, and some water and snacks as the incorrect internet warns about lack of water and food at the great wall!
I am now allowed in the station, to be greeted by a big line for S2. I had to wait another hour in line.
Once on the platform, people sprinted to the train, to get a seat, they neednt have bothered as there were actually spare seats after all that.
Heres what the seats look like, I sat down next to a window, and soon after a young girl in a very short skirt carrying a big handbag comes and asks me if the seat next to me is taken.
She spoke great English, and told me she was a student and was very surprised to find out that I was an Australian in China for a holiday, because surely if you live in Australia you would never want to leave.
Of course, she then starts with the 'where are you staying', 'do you want me to show you around?', 'do you need a place to spend the night?', 'do you want a girlfriend?' routine.
I knew it was coming, but she maintained her student routine for a good 30 minutes before she thought she had won me over. I told her I needed to go to the bathroom, which I did, and kept walking to the other end of the train.
Whilst being propositioned, the view out the window was great.
The train went past another section of what looked like restored great wall, but the train didnt stop here, I cant find it on a map either.
One interesting thing the train did, when getting near the end it was in deep ravines and went very slowly. Instead of a tight turn, at one point it went into a dead end, a switch was thrown, and the train then went backwards the rest of the way. A clever way of avoiding building a big curve.
Once off the train, theres quite a nice village. Yes it has a subway and a KFC and some convenience stores, but it wasnt over done, there was a lack of scammers lining the streets waving flyers.
Now for the great wall itself. It costs $5 to go on it. You are immediately faced with a decision, turn left or right. To the right theres cable cars to haul your fat ass up there, a gentle slope and gift shops, I could see roughly 50,000 people. To the left theres warnings about how steep it is, how the steps are 3 feet high in places and how theres no facilities available, I couldnt see anyone! I turned left.
The wall was absolutely fantastic, it was indeed very steep, sections without steps were too steep to walk upright, you have to lean forward and put a hand down. Some sections with steps you need to use your free hand to half pull yourself up.
Every now and then theres a turret section and the views are obviously spectacular. The whole time I was surprised how few people there were on 'my side', maybe 10 people.
It takes about an hour to get to the end of where they let you go, the initial parts are very steep, but then it just becomes undulating. There were so few people I thought maybe I had wandered into an area I shouldnt be in, only an occasional water / fridge magnet seller, who never even bothered me, convinced me that I wasnt out of bounds.
Looking towards the busy section of the wall from the start of the non busy section.
The wall stretches across the full horizon, its not all open to the public though.
Here I am at the top of the steep bit, looking across the canyon.
You cant really see it, but off in the distance is a big city, on a giant plain, then what looks like huge mountains behind it which you can just see on the horizon here.
The great wall village of Badaling below.
More view
Like I said, I have the wall to myself.
Generally its very peaceful and quiet, until some lazy tourists couldnt be bothered walking at all and rented a helicopter to annoy everyone with.
Staring directly into the heart of the sun.
I think I am at the end of the section they let you on here.
Close up of wall.
Its me in my snazzy new jacket. Its not nearly black enough.
I shouted a series of insults at the top of my lungs in fluent mandarin.
Photo number 300!
I have done my best here to illustrate how steep it is going down, showing this in photos never really works.
The train station at Badaling is tiny, has no timetable in English, no facilities and is full of people.
I lined up for about 45 minutes and once they let you onto the platform, the crush to get out there was dangerous. At some point they stop letting people through and then you have to wait an hour for the next train, hence the general panic, screaming, pushing.
Once on the platform, a guy yells through a loudspeaker system that doesnt really work, I have no idea what he was yelling but he seemed very concerned.
Once on the train, its absolutely full, people crouch on the floor and in the aisles, the toilets were hilarious! A sea of urine sloshing about. The dining car was sold out of everything, including water.
Not to worry, I wandered the full length of the train until I found a door with no one in it and enjoyed the excellent view.
Rolling back into Beijing right on dusk, we went past some great looking areas of the city I plan to go back to tomorrow.
The useless and tiny station.
The crushing line, that french looking guy you can see there, he was following me like I had an idea where I was going.
The train stopped here in the middle of nowhere and some of the staff got off and seemed to get into an argument with each other. The passengers got pretty restless at this point.
Final photo for today, its been a couple of days since beef noodle soup, and I found this place claiming to be the national champion. It was pretty good!