The Pretty-Pretty-Pretty Great Wall

S and I went to the Great Wall last weekend. She had a presentation to give in Beijing on Monday, so we decided to work in a visit to the Wall over the weekend, as it's not far from Beijing. Once we decided to go, I started exploring the possible destinations and made plans for the trip, and I let Sierra book my flight in and out of Beijing (hers was already purchased through work). Yeah, more on that later.

After some deep digging on the interwebs, I worked out details to visit a beautiful closed stretch of the Wall. We flew in to Beijing early on Saturday, took the subway to a bus depot, bused for 1.5 hours to a small town, and then had a driver take us an hour farther to a small simple inn. The inn itself is hidden up a winding road just an eighth of a mile below the Great Wall on the back side of the Simatai resort.

The quaint Dongpo Inn.  The accommodations were minimal, but the food was great and location even better.

We arrived at about 6pm on Saturday as the owner of the inn rode off on his motorcycle to make sure the guard enforcing the closure of that portion of the Wall had left for the day. When he returned, he showed myself, Sierra, and a handful of French patrons a trail to follow up to the Wall. From there, we climbed tower after tower until we were hiking with a wooded slope to our left and a cliff immediately off the right of the ancient winding structure.

Here's a birds-eye view of the stretch we hiked that evening. We went as far as the highest point on the right side before the Wall begins descending. While the entire stretch shown is currently closed, it is permanently closed beyond that point due to disrepair and lethal terrain. We turned around just in time to make it back to the inn by dark.

Here are a few photos from our evening on the Great Wall at Simatai. A thin fog shrouded the distant peaks and towers.

Pausing and posing on the way to the Wall.

Just warming up. It was very hot and humid, and it didn't take long to saturate my shirt. In fact, I've never seen Sierra sweat as much as she did this weekend, so I wasn't the only one.

This stretch of the Wall is known for the steep rugged terrain, unimproved condition, and remoteness leading to fewer visitors. All of my favorite things. Of course, being closed now really keeps the riff-raff out (except for us, apparently).

Obligatory jumping photo -- the Zen master leap

More to follow...

07/22: Medicating for the Great Wall

S and I have been sick, and this photo was before we got meds from a
local clinic. I'm typing this from a plane set for Beijing, where we
will visit the Great Wall this weekend. Fortunately our cocktail has
done the job and we're feeling a bit more human for our journey. The
next photos promise to be more interesting than this one...

07/21: Retro-futuristic terminator hausfrau

These colorful face shields can be spotted on ladies on occasion. Stylish.

07/20: Window washers

07/19: Sunbrellas

Keeping the skin as lilly white as possible, even in the shade of an overpass.

07/18: Shanghai contingent in Ningbo

Mapping the alleycat route.

Picture catch-up

Here are the pics that have been piling up.  In no particular order...

This weekend Sierra and I took a bus to Ningbo with 10 other cyclists. Ningbo is a neighboring city that I hadn't heard of before our trip despite its population of 6 million. A paltry sum compared to the 23 mil that is Shanghai.

We participated in a Saturday evening alleycat race, covering 23 kilometers and 5 checkpoints. We had time during the day to ride the course to figure out the route, and we lucked out with beautiful clear (read: not smoggy) skies.  In the evening, Sierra shrugged off her cold and rode with some girls, and I ended up riding it mostly solo and managed 3rd out of 90 riders. Not too shabby considering my lack of conditioning. Several bridges on the route afforded amazing views, but I wasn't about to stop to take pictures.

Sierra just before the alleycat, flexing #12 and partaking in the complimentary beer. 

Ok, this is just absurd. It may not be obvious, but there are many open windows on several floors of our work building. I understand that it is Chinese tradition (superstition?) to open windows to let the "bad air" out, but when the days are scorching AND the air quality is horrific, it just wastes energy and lets the bad air in.

This wiring may not be up to US code.

The Metro City mall around the corner.

This taxi driver didn't ask before lighting up his cig. Good thing he's behind a spit shield, or whatever that is.

The tapwater is not for drinking, so 23 million people are delivered bottled water. Some days I swear the tapwater stinks. Awesome.

Jeff and Ronnie, a couple of clowns.

07/10: Bungee slip-n-slide

On Sunday I joined some bike friends from Peoples Bike for some warm weather fun at a slip and slide. The twist was the bungee attached to the waist, so a full tilt run down the length of the plastic sheeting would result in a momentary pause at full tension before a spastic launch backwards down the length of the slick sheeting into the grass and mud at the start. It was messy, fun, and a bit bruising.

Building up a head of steam

The set up was on a grassy corner in view of an intersection and sidewalk. A crowd of locals progressively grew throughout the day, until we were encircled by well over a hundred. We even got some local Chinese in on it, much to their obvious joy.

Sierra and Tu Nga take their turn.

07/09: Child labor

This kiddo accompanied us (mostly Kurt) and our pitchers of margaritas
for a while Saturday night to schmooze some donations for his mom
nearby.

07/08: Mobile pet store

The little woven cages hold fighting crickets that make quite a racket.

07/07: Me first

This morning we got jammed up in oppressive heat and humidity as a
truck ahead tried to wedge down a narrow side street. It's common to
find drivers that won't leave a gap for pedestrians to squeeze
through even if the vehicle has nowhere to go. By the time this cleared, my
sweat production ramped up miserably.

More pics for your pleasure

Cousin Ryan photoshopped this beaut for FB, for those who missed it. I mean, this really happened.

It's been bloody hot out, but this was a purty day.

There's still room for a few more. Did I mention it's hot?

07/02: Pearl tower

A ride around town took us through a park near the iconic Pearl Tower.
It must have reached the upper 90s today (it's still 91 at 9:30p), but
at least the humidity was down a notch.

07/01: Bike litter