The Great Wall of China

Beijing, China

After being told there were no beds available on the 20 hour train journey, we opted to pay a little extra and travel via bullet train to Beijing. The 5 hour journey was smooth and we were soon at our horrible hostel in Beijing. The location was brilliant, however, everything else was not. The toilets were gross, we had rock solid beds, the internet was awful and the staff were miserable. To top it off, the activities listed on their website - games room, bar, pool table, etc – didn’t actually exist. BUT there is a positive, connected to the hostel was a little tour desk. We were keen to see the Great Wall but had heard horrible stories about the wall being so busy you could barely move and would have to walk one way with the flow of the crowd, following a tour guide. This tour desk offered a trip to the ‘non-touristy’ section of the wall where you were free to explore the wall yourself … the trip was amazing!! The sky was perfect, the views were breathtaking, and we weren’t expecting it to be as empty as it was! Sometimes we had whole sections of the wall to ourselves. We did a 3 hour trek up Mutianyu section of the wall and saw some of the most incredible scenery.