Mutianyu! (慕田峪长城)

On Friday it was a gorgeous day to have our hike to the Great Wall section of Mutianyu. The bus was 30 mins late but once we got on, we slept a bit (2 hrs) and then we reached the hike portion. The mutianyu section is older than the badaling section of the Great Wall.

The hike started from the village then up, up we went. Through the path we hiked up past the trees, bushes and at some point it got tighter and tighter together as all the trees were cloistered all over. After about 1 1/2 of walking on the trail, the wall peaks out at you and surprises you. Must be what it was like thousands of years ago when the invaders stumbled upon this giant wall! I had to climb through an open window and slowly climb up the section of the wall...Everywhere we turned was filled in with green--the mountains in the distance, the trees sprouting on the wall itself, the flower bush on the steps and each step you take you are surrounded by the green that had taken over the wall. We kept moving forward until we reached one of the towers and the view was insane! This is a view that you have to experience because it's so hard to capture the moment and the thoughts going through your mind. Even having been there at that moment, words did not come to mind of how to describe it.

 

The view from one of the towers on the Great Wall! 

After the first tower we continued walking through the forest of greens until we reached a halfway point where we had to cross a broken down section of the wall and that was just plain scary! On both side you could see if you slipped and fell you'd tumble your way through the forest beneath. 

After that scary part, we finally reached the normal restored section of the wall (THANK YOUU) and rested up a bit before trekking down the wall and back to the bus station. 

 

Such blue skies hiking that day

After the hike back down, we came back exhausted, sweaty and after a nice shower I passed the 'eff out!