Day 6 - Great Wall Shenanigans

A step too far . . .

Day 6 - 29th June

After dreams of Gary Oldman being my dad and painting over suspicious looking red patches in our cellar with blue paint, it was time to get up, shower and get to the Great Wall of China. Oh boy If only I'd known what was about to happen on this eventful day, I'd probably stayed in bed . . . no actually, I love a good caper.

The day started with a McDonalds breakfast accompanied with a warm carton of milk that had curdled. Doesn't matter, I'll be at The Wall soon, I told myself.

So, Will, Amanda and Halil joined me, travelling from Qianmen to Dongzhimen and then on to board bus 916 to Mutianyu. No problems, we were on our way and I was a closer to riding the toboggan off of the Great Wall - the only reason I'd actually visited Beijing. I'm grateful for everything else I saw, mind you.

So the others slept whilst I listened to my iPod. A Thousand Miles had never sounded better. Suddenly, a man jumps on the bus, yelling at me 'Off, off. Mutianyu, Mutianyu.' The others awoke and in their unconscious state, my state of shock and the lack of reaction from everyone else on the bus, we all jumped off. As the bus disappeared, he announced he was a mini van driver who would take us to Mutianyu. We'd been duped.

So we ignored his hustling and jumped back on the next 916 bus ten minutes later, annoyed we had to pay the bus fare again!

When we reached the Mutianyu bus station, we were set upon by another driver in a white shirt, who followed us down the street and back again when we searched for a better transfer to The Wall.

Eventually we found a cab who took us for a reasonable price. When we arrived, Will and Halil went to the bathroom and were knocked into by the white shirt driver who was pretty pissed that we hadn't used his services. When the reconvened with Amanda and me, the guy walks up to me and hits me with his photo sample placard, twice. We then had a stare off, which I'm happy to announce I won, before we headed off to the wall, him scowling and cursing behind us.

The Great Wall was misty and rainy. To compile more misery on our already crappy start to the day, we were informed the toboggan was closed! FML! All this way and it's rained off. Typical.

Adamant, it would not ruin our day, we set off on a mammoth step trek to the actual wall, which I think included over 300 steps. Once on the wall, we stepped up, then down and so on. Then it rained heavily and it was so misty, we couldn't see the distant parts of The Wall (I told you I like a good moan).

But when he rain stopped, the mist cleared, The Wall was awesome. A sight to behold, I was quite simply in awe.  Huge level of respect for the workmanship and effort it in to build the only thing visible from space. My day was getting better!

After Amanda hiked the whole section and returned to us lads, we headed back to find a cab. And in line with our luck, the guy who pulled us off the bus ran towards me, harassing me again. FML again! Things took a turn for the worse when we negotiated a mini van trip with three Australians. The man nudged me and pointed his bony finger at me, cursing. By this point, I was pissed off so I just walked away from him.

When we finally reached Beijing, we enjoyed more beer in the bar, laughing about our eventful day with Sean (who'd been sleeping).

A great day to remember!