On the second day of our Beijing trip, we climbed the Great Wall. We booked the tour at our hostel and were picked up at 8am. After 3.5 hours we arrived at the Great Wall in the north east of Beijing. We decided not to take the cable car, but to do the full hike of 10km.
When we got up the hills to the Wall, we were kindly welcomed by some mongolian farmers who wanted to sell picture books, post cards, t-shirts… they not only told us that we just climbed the 1st tower of 32 towers but were following us like shadows wanting to be our guide, t-shirt seller and so on. However, when we reached the 10th tower we started to like these farmers for carrying ice water up and down all the stairs of the Great Wall. After bargaining over the water and finally buying it for 50 cents, we enjoyed the amazing views and rested from the extausting hike.
But we had 22 towers, thousands of stairs up and down and tons of annoying mongolian farmers ahead of us 
However the absolutely great views made up for it as seen on the pictures. And after 3.5 hours, instead of 4.5 as our guides told us, and sweating like crazy, we arrived exhausted and ready to eat something at Simatai village. Being as strong and cool as we are and taking the ropeway and boat in the end, we reached the village as the first of our group (about 20 people). 
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| 2007-07-10 – Beijing Day 2 |
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