Great Wall Unrestored!

It's already the beginning of the fourth week of the program! Where has the time gone? This weekend was considered a relaxed weekend and I use that term loosely. Instead of our normal weekend excursion where we have an overnight stay, we had a day hiking trip to the Mutianyu Great Wall unrestored section of the wall. By unrestored, I do not mean some rocks hanging off the wall--I really mean trees whacking you in your face, uneven path winding up and down the mountain and eventually you see the wall creeping up in your view. I was part of Team Chill which mean we could take it 'easy' hiking up the wall and had more rests in between the hike. There were 2 other teams: Team Moderate and Team X'treme!

(The hike up on the unrestored portion of the Wall)

The weather for the hike was gorgeous! It was sunny and clear blue skies not the typical Beijing weather we normally get (smog) so I was really grateful. It took us about 2 hours to hike up the mountain to reach the wall where we had to keep following the wall back to the restored portion of the wall. We crossed broken down portion of the wall where it was very easy to slip and fall off the wall. In my head, I kept thinking please don't let a kid fall off or slip or twist an ankle! Luckily, all the kids made it in one piece across and Team Moderate/Team X'treme was cheering on our kids as they approached the restored portion which was a great boost of energy. I'm glad these kids have settled into the idea of family now with each other. The cheering and encouragement really shows the support they have for everyone.

(The path where we came from-had to climb through this window) 

After reaching the fortress on the restored part, we had lunch and prepared for the student presentation. They had 3 different topics regarding the Great Wall: Past, Myths and Modern views of the Great Wall. The kids had awesome presentations where they used the information given and ran with it. After the educational bits were done, we continued onwards so we could explore more of the wall and make our way down the restored part so we could get back to the city in time.

(Us facilitators joining on the fun)

As we passed different forts on the wall, we climbed upon them and took lots of jumping photos which is a must clearly lol I believe the kids really did enjoy the day and even though most thought they were going to die from the hike, in the end it was truly worth it for them personally and overall great experience.
Within the same night, we had a social event where we laid out sleeping bags in the common room and watched Mulan through the night. It was a great conclusion to the night because the kids was just at the Great Wall as well as Forbidden City in the same week.

Sunday rolled by and they had history class and we surprised them with KTV afternoon filled with English music. Kids sang Bieber, Kanye, Drake, Zedd as well as Beyonce. Everyone had a great time singing and dancing. This was a great break for everyone in general because usually we pack the schedule with heavy items that need to done.

Today is the start of a new week--new excursions and even more new experiences that needs to be had.
'Till another time.
Deuces

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!

Back to Beijing once again!

I am thoroughly exhausted right now... I just came back from a staff retreat camping weekend at Huang hua cheng section of the Great Wall (also known as 水长城 Shui chang cheng).


It was a great experience and bonding session since we just started working together and will be together for the summer. We left Saturday morning early to take the shuttle up to the Great Wall. Once we made our way to the entrance, we hiked up to the camping site with our backpacks filled with food, supplies and tents.
This was my first time actually camping--like woods, bugs and pitching tent status! It was very exciting to learn about that and do all the outdoorsy things that came along with that...

We decided to wake up early to catch the sunrise today, but sadly due to the mountains we weren't able to watch the actual sunrise. It just kept getting brighter and brighter. While people went back to sleep, I decided to take that time to walk around the area and take photos. I climbed onto sections of the wall that said 'no climbing' but there was no one around so I did it. It was worth it because it was gorgeous!
Having that serenity around you just allows you to be so content with where you are in life. It also makes you wonder about the structure that was built so long ago and yet it still stands somewhat intact. All the effort, blood and sweat to build each and every brick.

I didn't climb all the way to the top where the towers were because 1. I'm scared of heights and also 2. I still respect part of the sign lol Even though I didn't go all the way, I definitely pushed my comfort zone and attempted the climb half way. The satisfaction of getting the view all to myself was worth it enough.


After the morning climb/stroll, went back to sleep for another hour before waking up to make pancakes with the rest of the team while it decided to rain. We had a tarp thankfully set-up last night so we weren't soaked when it poured around us.

After breakfast, we had to get ready to head back down to return to our retrospective homes. It feels so good to shower again! No lie, I am so sore right now from the hike, climbing, walking, and backpacking portion of the trip... I sound like a wimp lol

I have tomorrow off, so I hope to take that chance to sleep in and explore the city again. Wish me luck! I really hope I don't get lost because that would suck.

Great Wall of China!

Hello all,

Today is July 4th so you guys will probably be setting up your lawn chairs out where ever you guys are and resting w/ several plates of yummy food and waiting for the fireworks....while I climbed the GREAT WALL OF CHINA! I woke up today bright and early at 6:30am to get ready for the trip ahead. Shower, sunscreen SPF 70, bug spray, bottles of water, extra shirt, umbrella and of course a camera to take our hard work climbing the ancient structure. We got to the bus at 7:30am which left on time for 2hrs to reach the bottom of the wall. People were either asleep or awake snapping pictures of the trip to the wall. I was busy taking pictures so I didn't really sleep, but was just anxious to see one of the great wonders of the world---which can be seen

As I stepped out of the bus, it was surreal because everywhere was buses and little souvenir shops selling 'i have climbed the great wall' t-shirts and Mao paraphernalia..We had to make rounds to the bathroom because I doubt there be any on the actual wall. We got our tickets and began our climb up....oh dear god! We were sooooo lucky we went before the crowd and the sun rising over our heads. As we began our climb, sweat began to drop and accumulate! The climb itself I lost track of time, I was just thinking oh man, please let the next stairs led to the actual wall..Eventually we reached the wall itself and it was definitely worth it. The breeze, the view and just the epic-ness of it all was amazing! It was really an experience to be on top of that structure and to see what people might has saw all those years ago and follow the steps of the wall...(it's really slanted!)

Since we were there about 9:30am the sun wasn't out quite yet so it wasn't that bad, although I do believe I got some tanning done. There were brief moments of breeze when ever we needed it so it was really nice. There was a cute little kitty cat that meowed at us as we were climbing the wall..I was sad that I could not pet it because I did not know where it had been..but it was quite cute regardless..As we were making our way on the wall, we of course took massive amounts of pictures with us being silly :) What is a visit to the great wall of china without some silly/martial arts pictures lol Last year I have heard tales of giant mutant bugs that followed them and mosquitoes up the wazoo, but we were lucky enough to only have the mutant bugs following us but no bites.. As we were getting close to going down to the bus again, we took jumping pictures although I epically failed that...I never do good jumping pictures although I do like our group martial art poses :D As we were making our way down, mad people started heading up the wall so we were lucky to get there early enough to take some nice pictures without that many people. When we reached the bottom near where our bus was parked, I bargained for an awesome panda hat and some postcards lol Once we all got on the bus, we were all more or less knocked out until we reached school again..Talk about wipe out. I have uploaded the pictures along with other China photos on facebook so you guys can check it out.. (here are some)

The camel we saw right off the bus

Guardian Cat!

We made it up the Wall! :D

Please don't shoot..

Some martial arts pics on the Great Wall, of course! :P

Overboard!

Victory is MINE... puhahaha xD

And something for the way back... :D

Until the next time...

Sim Passed OUT!

First test, puppies, and THE GREAT WALL ...coming soon.

So today was my first day of exam---thank god that's over with..I can actually rest for like 1 hr... After one hour of rest, I had to meet up with a friend and we basically went shopping, ate shabu shabu, drank tsing tao and shopped some more...I did the more exploring and walking ever all in one day!!! It's kinda sad that I've been here for a week now and JUST went exploring..

While exploring i saw the cutest little puppy!! It was white and had light brown spots on it and it was just the cutest thing alive! I sooo wanted to run away with it :) then as I continued to walk down I saw a cute lil boy running around in a mohawk! A legit one! It was great, I kind of wish I had a picture of him just doing his thing with his cool mohawk.. then eventually on the next block I saw another little boy with a left cut shape haircut on the front of his head...(you have to be chinese to understand this.....) it was just too funny :P

Then went to a nice pho place for dinner and then FINALLY headed back to my room at like 10pm...Night life at Wu is popping lol...I have to get up at 6ish to prep for the GREAT WALL OF CHINAAAAAAA! Yes, I will be climbing the great wall on 4thh of July hahaha I find that really funny..It'll take at least 2 hours to get to the great wall, probably an hour or so climbing the damn thing...Another few hours running around and taking pictures then climbing down and passing out in the bus....oh yeah, great independence day---kind of hard core work out if you ask me...not much eating at all lol

Have a great 4th of July peoples and I'll post as soon as I rest from the major climbing on China's most historical site.

Sim out...