China Trip - Day 2 (Great Wall)

I really enjoyed our time in China, but this day was by far my favorite day. The Great Wall really is all that and a bag of chips. It is not overrated and is absolutely amazing. We wanted to see a less touristy (and less restored) part of the wall, so we chose to hike from Jinshanling to Simatai. We went through a hostel, which pretty much just provided us travel to and from and the entrance tickets. It took about two and a half hours with a short rest stop in the middle to get to Jinshanling. I had fun taking some pictures on the way up there.

Once we arrived we climbed up to the wall and took off. It really was amazing. The surrounding area was so beautiful. We were given 4 hours to do the hike, but Ben and I covered the area in less time than that and kept hiking along the Simatai part of the wall until we had to be back to the van. It was mostly peaceful except for the handful of "vendors" who hounded those on the wall offering coke, beer, water and Great Wall T-shirts. These pictures of the Great Wall don't do it justice, but I tried.

We were a little late (almost an hour) leaving the Great Wall because one of others of the group heard the time to report back wrong. After we got back we ventured to the famous Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant. Even though we had to wait for an hour and half the meal was fabulous. While we were waiting we tried to get to Tianamen Square again,

but they had already closed it to visitors. I had tried duck before and wasn't much of a fan, but this duck with the plumb sauce was really awesome. The duck is carved right at your table

and you were given some veggies and dough to eat the duck with. It was well worth the wait.