Paul and Christine's Journey to Anywhere: The Great Wall and 798 Art Zone

On August 7, Vivie took us to the Great Wall. Even though there were other great walls built by other dynasties, the Great Wall that exists today was built in the 1400's by the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It is estimated that it took over 100 years to build. We went to the Mutianyu access point (repaired in 1984 and opened to the public in 1989) which is much less crowded than the Badaling entrance (do not go there!). Even still, getting there early is a good idea because there are way less people - which made for some nice photos.

We decided to take the cableway up to save our energy walking along the wall

Our guide, Vivie

It's like a ski lift except there's no snow

I was just a little nervous on this and no, I did not wonder how well it was made

Mutianyu provided a civilized sightseeing experience (I guess maybe compared to Badaling?)

Yup, climbing it

Can you see the cableway cars?

In front of Tower 6

I caught a butterfly flying by

We walked to Tower #11

This is still only tower 7. Yay! We made it to the Great Wall and Paul's holding two bottles of water!

Maybe our luck is changing... we got a pretty clear day

I like that it was practically empty and that you can see the mountains in the background

A different perspective

Slinky shot

Some nice scenery

It's as far as the eye can see!

The mountains were really pretty

We're approaching tower 11 - those cable cars are different than the ones we used

Inside one of the towers

Walking back towards tower 6

But we decided to check out tower 1 to see parts of the wall that haven't been restored

It's a steeper hike

We made it to tower 1 - here's the point we were supposed to stop...but everyone ignores the rules

Unrestored wall

This is the other part of the wall that hasn't been restored - can you tell there's a forest growing on it?

Walking back to tower 6

Yeah, graffiti on the wall

Yeah, we climbed it - does it look steep?

Bye bye bye Great Wall

After all that walking, we took the cable car back down

After our Great Wall visit, Vivie drove us to the 798 Art Zone - a popular area for art and art galleries using old military factory buildings. But you have to go through a guarded gate to get into the area, so it doesn't exactly blend in. This place is also known as the 798 Art District or Factory 798.