Visiting The Great Wall of China has been one of the best opportunities my job ever gave me. It was a unique, once in a lifetime experience. A destination that has always seemed completely out of reach, suddenly was a couple of hours away.
The flight from Dubai to Beijing is around 8- 9 hours. Luckily, the layover was 33 hours, which gave us plenty of time to visit the Wall. It was August and the temperature in China in summer is very high - 30/33 degrees Celsius. It is also very humid.
As usual after arrival, we headed straight to the hotel. The plan was to visit The Great Wall the next day by car, organized by the hotel. By the way, if you have limited time in Beijing, you have to choose whether to visit The Wall or The Forbidden City. Both places are big and it takes time to reach them. You need two separate days for each.
Anyway, we headed to The Great Wall the next day. The ride was about 45 minutes to one hour long. Contrary to the popular belief, you don’t simply jump off the car and there you are, by the Great Wall! Once we reached the area accessible by car, we realized that the journey was just starting…
The driver took us to an area resembling a very small village with markets and some restaurants. It was a very good opportunity to buy souvenirs. Once we arrived, we had to queue about one hour to get on a bus that was going to take us to a lift, that was going to take us to The Wall!
After a tiring and very hot waiting at the queue and a 20-30-minute bus ride, we found ourselves on the lift. After some more waiting, there it was - The Great Wall of China!
The Wall appears gradually. At first, you see high green hills and then parts of the Wall, showing up one by one like a snake, gliding up and down a hill. When you get off the lift you finally see it in its full glory - infinite curved line of perfectly constructed stones, reaching as far as the eye can see…
Once you get off the the lift, you already have a pretty clear view of what the Wall is like - it spreads far and wide into the horizon, without an obvious end. However, if you want to take that perfect picture, you have to work for it! Once there, you realize that walking along it is not going to be just a stroll but more like climbing a mountain peak.
We climbed about 300 meters to reach the perfect spot for a picture and it was the most exhausting 300 meters of my life! The slopes are very steep and the steps you climb are huge - they are actual stones in the shape of regular stairs. Adding to that, it was about 30 degrees Celsius and the humidity must have been at least 40% ! So, walking up and down the Wall proved to be quite an adventure! Also, you have to be careful when walking because it can be slippery or you can trip over at the steps. There are rails you can hold on to, but guess what! - the Wall is full of centipedes! They are fat and big and if you hold on to a rail, you risk touching one!
The Great Wall of China was built by many successive dynasties. Its main purpose was defense but also border controls, regarding immigration and emigration. Before the use of bricks, the Great Wall was constructed mainly from rammed earth, stones and wood. Later on, bricks were heavily used as well as tiles, lime and stones. It was built 2,300 years ago and it is long 21,196km or 13,170 miles!
There is a curious fact surrounding this construction phenomenon - that the Wall is visible from space. This is not true at all but still lingers as one of the most famous myths in popular culture!
The best time to visit is in spring when the temperature is between 11-24 degrees Celsius. The best months are April and May. The weather is fresh and and warm but take a reliable jacket just in case.
At the end of your hike comes the best part. Visitors don’t have to walk all the way back down but instead you get on a vehicle that resembles a sledge - a slide that you ride yourself down the hill and you have a view of the Wall around you. You can regulate the speed yourself by an attached joystick. Don’t be afraid, the slide is perfectly safe and prominent figures such as Michelle Obama have taken their turns on the slide! Finally, you get back on the bus and return to the village where you started.
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