07-01-2008
10th time on the Great Wall
A new visitor means a new trip to the Great Wall. This time Katie was in town. She's a cousin of Campbell, a very good friend of mine who recently moved back to the US. Katie will stay with us for a week, before she shoots off to Singapore.
As it was my 10th time on the Wall (and Steffi's 4th time) and the weather was awesome, we decided to head to Jingshanling to walk to Simatai. It's a 10K walk that I've done twice before: The first time I was on the Wall and once with Idapted.
It proved to be a great choice. The temperature was great for walking and with no tourists around it was very enjoyable. We spent 4 hours walking at a very slow and comfortable pace, taking plenty of time for pictures and a long lunch break.
It was perfect. Very satisfied, we headed back to Beijing to enjoy some Xinjiang food at the Red Rose.
18-11-2006
7th time on the Great Wall
The day after the new James Bond movie "Casino Royale" came out, I have to admit it felt very correct to be conducting my 7th visit to the Great Wall. This time it was a team building trip with the people from work. 
Believe it or not, but there are Chinese that have never been to the Great Wall, but it is kind of a pilgrimage that they need to make, in order to be proper Chinese.
This time we opted for a bus
to jinshanling and a 10 k walk to Simatai. It's the same trip I did the very first time I went to the Wall, so I kind of felt like a tour guide. The weather was excellent and we enjoyed a nice pace to take in the scenery. Halfway we stopped for a good picnic made up of sandwiches and snacks. We naturally used the opportunity to take some pictures, before we headed back down to catch our bus back.
Back in Beijing we topped the day off by enjoying a nice hot-pot dinner, followed by some drinks. It had been a day of great fun.
06-07-2006
6th time on the Great Wall
July month had been penciled into my calendar as the month Torstein would be visiting. Needless to say the Wall was at the top of our list of things to do while we were in Beijing. Our reasons for going were two-fold. First of all, he had to become a man, as per Mao's saying (no person is a man until he's been on the Wall) and secondly to test our gear before we head to Tibet.
In all parts it was a success. We followed the gameplan my brother and me used when we slept on the Wall in March and headed to the same spot we used then. It was not only warmer now, but also much greener than when my brother and me went.
The hike in itself was nice and perfect to get the heart pumping and the sweat flowing. We got to the same tower my brother and me slept on and set up camp there.
We made a delicious dinner using my newly purchased multi-fuel stove. After dark we also made a 
fire that we grilled some hot dogs on. When we started making food the largest concentration of mosquitoes I have ever seen started hovering over us. It was insane how many there were, but the amazing thing was that they didn't sting us. They let completely let us be, which pleased us and worried us ... afterall wasn't our blood good enough?
Like the last time I had brought firework, so like true 12 year-olds, we sent a couple of salvoes into the air before creeping into the sleeping bags. The next morning a thick fog hugged the landscape, so instead of sticking around for the sunrise, we broke camp and headed out after a nice breakfast. Before Mutianyu opened we were shooting through their gates and were in a taxi bound for Beijing. This before the hawkers had noticed us. The trip was excellent and served to wet our appetite properly for Tibet.
14-04-2006
5th time on the Great Wall
Mao said that you can't call yourself a man until you've been on the Great Wall. This was my 5th time on the Wall ... Does that mean that I am 5 times the man of someone who hasn't been there ... or do they start to cancel each other out? Is it possible to be "overwalled"?
I'm always happy to return to the Wall and try to get to new locations each time ... this is a truth with some modifications, because I tend to sleep on the same spot, but since today was a day trip we selected a new location. The reason I was going to the Wall this time was that Kjetil (a buddy from Norway) was visiting me and the blonde duo Kristine and Hanne (also friends from home) were in Beijing (on a shopping holiday, though they "claim" it was for cultural reasons). We joined forces and headed up there.
We took a bus to Huairou and caught a cab from there to this beautiful spot. At least that's what I had been promised. I was super dissapointed, because it was the worst part I had been to yet ... the only upside was that it was virtually free to get onto the Wall, but once on it, you could only stay on about a 100 meter stretch, forbidden to walk on. I thought it sucked, but kept a plain face. They were luckily happy to just be on the wall, so it worked out OK.
All in all I was happy to see that part of the wall, if for no other reason than to never return there.
23-03-2006
First overnight on the Great Wall
After having a great time in Sanya and a few nice days in Beijing, it was time to top off my brother, Martin’s, visit with an overnight on the Great Wall. Though this was my 4th time on the Wall, it was the first time I'd head up there to sleep. 
Last time I went when my mother was visiting it had been absolutely freezing on the Wall, but it being March now, we hoped the temperature wouldn’t be horrendous. To get there we caught bus 916 to Huairou, where we hailed a taxi that took us to Jiankou for 40 RMB. We were dropped off by a restaurant and from there we had a relatively steep climb up to the Wall. The only warning we had received prior to going was to keep left, if not you could get lost. We kept left, but still managed to end up on the wrong trail. After a bit of bushing, we managed to climb onto the Wall. Once on the Wall we headed towards Mutianyu, though the plan was not to go all the way there, but to stop somewhere in the middle.
The walk on the wall wasn’t too strenuous, but a bit hairy in places, because you could seriously hurt yourself if you fell. The section of the Wall that we were walking on was built in 1368 and hasn’t been renovated like other sections of the wall have. The walk was excellent and after an hour or so we came upon the tower we wanted to sleep on top of. We picked it, because the view was awesome, it had a nice flat roof that hadn’t collapsed and because sunset was approaching and we really wanted to do some tightrope walking on the actual Wall.
Once we decided upon the tower, we dumped our backpacks and ran to find a suitable spot to tightrope. Luckily we found one nearby and quickly suspended the line and started tight roping. It was a pretty unreal location and a lot of fun. We kept at it until right before the sun set, then we headed back to set up camp before darkness ascended.
We had brought a ton of supplies with us and knew we wouldn’t starve. 
We made a nice dinner on Martin’s camping burner that filled us up nicely after a good day of trekking. Then we continued the feast by stuffing ourselves with chips and chocolates. Very enjoyable. It was incredible how dark it became when the sun set, but my brother had just invested in an Optimus gas light, that we lit. It gave us good light and added to the ambiance.
We set up sleeping area on the flattest part of the roof. From the loose bricks scattered on the roof we were able to construct a small wind-wall, so that we would be well protected if the wind changed. 
After eating dinner we crawled into our sleeping bags and continued snacking and chatting from there. I had purchased some loud fireworks that we set off. They looked like sticks of dynamite, but when you lit one, there was first a small bang as it was thrown into the air and then a much louder bang when it exploded far above our heads.
The temperature was not bad for March, but we had brought warm clothing and though my brother had his winter sleeping bag, I was sleeping in 2 summer sleeping bags, hoping it would insulate enough. This proved just a tad cold and I spent most of the night awake shivering. I did however fall promptly asleep when the sun rose and its warming rays made the bags super comfortable. My brother let me sleep for a few hours, before we enjoyed a nice breakfast. Afterwards we packed our gear making sure we didn’t leave anything behind. Then we set off to Mutianyu. At first there was a small climb up to the tallest part of this section, before we could enjoy nice downhill walking for the rest of the way to Mutianyu.
When we got down to Mutianyu the Wall looked completely different. We came from the raw and wild Wall to the developed and touristicated Wall. The walk down to get a taxi was very easy and we completed this part of the trek much faster than expected. This worked out well, because in the evening I had invited all my friends to a housewarming party in my new flat in Chaoyangmen.
The Trek and overnight on the Wall had been awesome and we were both very happy that we had done it. Sleeping on the Wall like they did so long ago had almost a magical feel to it. We agreed that together with the Sanya trip, this had been a great adventure.
05-01-2006
The Great Wall with Stein and Jeff
1 picture definitely speaks a 1000 words!
Believe it or not, but it was many degrees below freezing, so standing with our pants around our ankles was no picnic. I was luckily able to stay somewhat warm running back and forth between the camera while we were getting the shot set up.
I'll back-track a bit. After spending a couple of days to recover from our festive New Years eve celebration, it was time to head up to the Great Wall, so that Stein and Jeff could become real men as well (as per Mao). We were very lucky with the weather the day we went, because the sun was shining and it was gorgeous. It was still incredibly cold, but three brave Northern Europeans weren't about to let a little chill stop our outing.
We took a cab from outside my apartment straight to Simatai for about RMB 450, for the return trip. When we got to Simatai it was virtually deserted, because few others wanted to experience the Wall on such a cold day.
We hiked up high on the wall. Smoking and hiking doesn't mix and Jeff had to stop before we got to the top, to catch his breath and relax. Stein and me pressed on and got to the top of the highest section, where we took a ton of pictures.
When we got back down to Jeff, it turned out that he had made friends with some of the guards. It was more out of necessity than a need to talk (since they didn't speak English anyway), but Jeff felt like he was freezing to death, so he took charge. He bought a can of Nescafe ice-coffee and got them to light a fire and heat the can, giving him a much needed warm cup of coffee.
With the hiking over we headed back down to the taxi, to get back to Beijing in a hurry to enjoy a nice cold beer ... inside a WARM bar. We deserved it!