The Great Wall

Yesterday we climbed the wall.

The scenery is amazing.

We took the train, from Beijing North Train Station, which looked rather new. I had read about it on the Internet and the cab driver kept insisting there was no train to the wall from there. I pushed for it anyway, and it turned out there were trains almost every hour. It's a beautiful ride. A big train, very new and modern, with big windows almost all the way to the floor, so you can enjoy the scenery. Half way when it enters the mountains it slows down to begin its climb. My guess is that it climbs at least 500 meters, if not more.

From the Badaling station it's about 800 meters walk to the entrance of the wall.

Even in the mountains there's a lot of dust and sand in the air, which makes the view look very foggy, but that hardly spoils the magnificence of it all...

Here's a few pictures...

Beijing North Train Station

First view of the mountains, photo taken from the train...

First view of the wall, photo taken from the train...

View from the wall...

Part of the wall...

Click on the photos for the bigger version...