Mutianyu

A not-terribly-interesting photo of a tree at Jinshanling. This was in the morning, before departure to Mutianyu, and the light wasn't fantastic. It's got quite a nice shape though... Ho hum.

I thought "The Center of Consulting" was good until I saw "The Center of Lawsuit". Clearly this is the place to be in Jinshanling.

I unfortunately didn't have time to examine this at leisure as I would have liked to have done, so I took this photo in the hope that I'd be able to make something out of it back home. I'm glad I did, because it shows off the section we walked on day 2 very well - in fact it's quite remarkable just how far we came. I mean, I knew it was far, but to see it like this is really something.

The donkey is blindfolded and walking in circles, grinding something white between the two stones. There was some speculation that it might be rice, but Diana reckons it's millet, and now she mentions it, that makes more sense, doesn't it: rice is grown in the south, and millet in the north, I believe. Correct? All thoughts on this matter are welcome!

By the way, the previous morning in Simatai, we'd seen people doing the job of the donkey. Some of our party stopped to photograph them and got shouted at. :-)

Well, I realised I hadn't included any pre-walk photos yet. They're generally not very interesting: people's backs as they walk up the road, but for completeness, here's one on at Mutianyu. The pre-walks were an opportunity to warm up, get into a walking frame of mind, and (for me at least) work out exactly how many coats I should actually be wearing - usually a couple less than I had on. On this particular pre-walk I was feeling pretty green, nursing a bit of a hangover, which fortunately passed before I hit the wall.

Bird in cage during pre-walk at Mutianyu. I dig the little vases he's got in the cage with him.

Those interested in my choice of title for this photograph should watch this movie.

To get onto the wall at Mutianyu you could either climb these steps or take the cable-car. After the exertions of Simatai to Jinshanling many people welcomed the opportunity for a more restful day at Mutianyu, and chose the cable car.

I took the steps, because I'm stupid like that, and I have to say it was an enjoyable climb. The steps weren't anything special, just wholly unexciting modern stone steps, but the company was good. :-)

A distant part of the wall at Mutianyu, which we didn't walk on. One thing you really noticed at Mutianyu was the way the wall snaked this way and then that, with extra bits shooting out here and there, and I think you can see this quite well in this picture, with the two lengths of wall, one nearer, one much further away.

OK, so it's not a terribly well composed photograph, but here's Angela having her picture taken by Louisa at Mutianyu. Maybe I should have done the sensible thing and stood where Louisa was standing. On the other hand, I'm sure we'll have enough identical photos already...

Check it out folks, it's the Great Wall of China. You can see the cable car station in the middle distance, shortly after which we stopped for lunch, and I think the horizontal stretch in the far far distance is the furthest we got that day, ie I think it's the "wild" bit that Anthony, Louisa, and I got onto, naughty trekkers that we are.

Look - they really do exist! I'm not just making them up!

Would have been nice to go in one I expect, but my legs wouldn't let me. If anyone's got any nice photos of either the view from the cable car, or other passengers looking green and/or scared, I'd love to see them. ;-)

Run for it lads, here comes Anthony!

Only kidding Anthony, we love you really. :-)

Cathy and Gill climbing the steps into one of the watchtowers, which I'm on the roof of, looking down.

Here are the excellent Chinese guides, patiently waiting for us to pass by and pick up water bottles. The Thousand Steps can be seen shooting straight up on the top-right.

Trekkers enjoying (?) their lunch at Mutianyu. Don't be fooled by the snow - it was lovely and hot sitting in the sun. :-)

Another nice view of the end part of the Mutianyu section, including The Thousand Steps and The Dangerous Road. You can see the reverse of this image here.

Notice the white bits in the corners? That's where I had to rotate the photograph because the stupid processing lab is apparently incapable of placing negatives squarely into their scanner. This has affected a few other shots on this film, but I've either cropped them down or cunningly filled in the spaces in The Gimp, which is like Photoshop but free (and when I say "like Photoshop", I really mean that - it's that good).

The beast approacheth...

A few words about the other tourists we saw... We saw a few western tourists, and quite a few Chinese tourists (especially on this day and the last day, at Jurongguan). The westerners were generally dressed like us - hiking boots, wet-weather gear, fleeces, etc. The locals seemed to be dressed in their everday clothers: shirts, ties, smart trousers, brogues, high-heeled shoes, etc. To be honest, I'm not sure which of us was more foolish... :-)

No, really, it is. I mean, you may think it doesn't look that steep, but you try climbing it.

Here he is, my erstwhile room-mate, Mr Llew Kemp - big round of applause, please. Thank you, thank you, you're too kind.

Here we see a solitary warrior standing in readiness, watching, waiting, for surprise attack by the Mongol hordes. Unfortunately he's eight centuries too late. Ah well, never mind.

Anthony says "Come on then, in one go!". Everyone else says "Ha ha ha, very amusing, see you at the top, madman".

The sign marking the start of the wild wall at Mutianyu, a section I now fondly recall as The Dangerous Road. The words "Here be dragons" would have been equally effective, I think. And as it happens, I didn't have my safe on me, so I wasn't too worried about it.

You can see what's behind the sign in this picture, and there'll be more photos of The Dangerous Road on my sixth film, when I get round to uploading it.

See? I told you it was steep. Look how close to the top they are, and still they're resting. That's not because they're wimps - it's just really really steep! I mean, you may think it's steep on the way down to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts compared to The Thousand Steps. (Er, sorry, went a bit "Douglas Adams" there).

That's Hugh, Trudi, and Anita, by the way.

Did I mention that The Thousand Steps was steep yet? I did? Oh. Then you probably don't want to hear about the last bit, which was, er, steeper. Here we see Trudi and Anita climbing it. I was hoping they'd look up, but they'd probably have fallen backwards if they had, so it's probably best they didn't...

Looking back down at where we came from...

Or on the other hand... Don't. :-) That's Louisa, Hugh, Rhiannon, and Llew by the way.

It's me! I was there! Hurrah! The full version of this picture includes a rather nasty pile of rubbish in the bottom right. I cropped the frame to get rid of most of it, then artfully scrubbed out what was remaining in The Gimp. If only it were possible to do that with the actual rubbish on the wall.

Here we see Sherpa Harry at the foot of The Dangerous Road, looking his usual intrepid self. As you can see, the first bit is really good fun - very steep and fairly crumbly. Was excellent scrambling up it ten minutes later...

Someone buy this woman a pair of sunglasses - Lord knows she deserves them!

Also note the beer-selling hawker behind her. This is at the top of The Thousand Steps, an excellent place for a nice cold brewski (or, in this case, some weak soapy Chinese stuff). As far as I know, Neil was the only one who partook, however.

Damn, it's beautiful.