Coming from triathlon event we happened to talk with one Irish guy in the bus line back to town (Changping) about the race and where we are from and so on. Moving up in the line we figured that we could go to the Great Wall all together. As always - we got couple of sets of instructions and started our journey. After getting off the first bus and starting to get instructions of the second bus departure location we were joined also by one German couple. After some time the guy offered us a deal that he would take us there for 10CNY each - sounds like a good deal, so we agree to it. Now there we are - 5 adults plus the driver trying to fit into this tiny car (tiny like Mazda-323-tiny), we all squeezed in of course and were stuck there for about 30 minute drive :) But we all got there in one piece - only i lost the feeling in my left leg after first 5 minutes or so :)
Great Wall of China is preserved in many sections and they are all over the place. We ended up going to the one closest to town called Juyongguan. The day was warm of course, even sitting in the shade is too much, it was some 28C in the shade apparently. So there we were going up the steep stairs for ever and ever - was all worth it. I got flashbacks from my Peru trip and the stears climbing up in the mountains. Riina on the other hand had totally new experience in that regard :) We both went all the way up there though! YAY US! :)
Coming down we decided to take the road less traveled and take a detour, which meant that we had to go almost all the way down to the bridge and then half way up again and then slooowly and gradually down on the opposite side of the hill/mountain. Whenever we stopped on the way our legs would shake :) We also met a tiny snake on the way down - the poor thing was doing its best to escape from us downwards, it also tried to hide by the stairs but we still kept coming towards it. And of course we tried to get away from it as well, so we ran downwards past it as quickly as possible :) Yeah, we ran for a while :D
Once we arrived at the bridge Riina promised that she will definitely die if she had to climb any more stairs :) Decision made, we took a shortcut by letting ourselves through some random gate and struggled through some maze of trailers and fences. Those were there from the Olympic cycling event that took place on the very same road that passed by the Great Wall. Local workers were busy taking down the cyclists temporary village and bleachers, but nobody complained about us randomly wondering around there :) At last we ended up on the road, after a bit of walking we passed by the entrance and that was already closed and it was all dead in and around there. At least we knew the bus number that should take us back to town. As we did not see any bus stops around while walking then once the bus came we just tried to wave and hoped that they also pick people up from the side of the road - but no luck the first time :( It already passed our mind that we might have a long walk coming up if they really don't stop for us without the bus stop :D Second bus that passed decided to stop though. Dunno, maybe it was because of the police officer that we happened to be chatting with :D Anyhoo - we got on the bus and then found out that it is going straight to Beijing :) yay.
For evening activities we had agreed with Marko and his dad that we will try to get to the stadium - perhaps we can buy tickets on the last minute or something (as Kanter was competing we really wished we could get to the stadium). So we needed to get off the bus somewhere close to the stadium. My question started a very active discussion between the driver, some passengers and the ticket lady :) I just kept looking left and right to figure out what was going on and if i can maybe read something out of their facial expressions. As much as I could understand the stadium was somewhere close, but the bus did not have an official stop here. At some point the bus driver started to show something with his hands and stopped the bus, we just hurried off at this point :)
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