Day 25: The Great Slide of China

DID: Decided we could not be bothered to wake up early enough to join the group tours to the Great Wall (they all start at 7.30am). Opted instead for the public bus. You should have seen the look on the concierge’s face when Jason asked for info on this! He insisted that we take his mobile number with us because he was convinced we’d need a rescue. Undeterred, we set off for the main bus terminal (Dongzhimen) and caught bus 916 for Huairou. At Huairou there are supposedly official shuttles which take you to the wall (the Mutianyu section). Never did find the shuttle, instead we bartered with a guy to take us there (about a 30 minute ride), wait for us, and bring us back to the bus stop for around $7. Jason’s lack of expression really comes in handy with these negotiations, they don’t know what to make of him!! Most of the time he’s just trying to do the currency conversion in his head, but they interpret the lag time as lack of interest and knock the price down a bit.

Again this may not have been the safest mode of transport. In order to give us more room to get into the back of the van, the driver simply slid the entire middle row of seating towards the opposite side of the car. Sort of take for granted that seating in cars is bolted down, guess I need to revise that while in China.

Mutianyu section has several options for exploring the wall. From the base, you can take either a cable car or a chairlift to the top (each goes to a different terminus), walk across the wall and then ride down. Or you can opt to take a 2km toboggan ride down a metal chute.  We of course went for the toboggan and had so much fun we did it again. This confused the heck out the ticket lady at the chairlift, I guess not too many people treat it as an amusement park.  Took several shouting matches and an escort from the main ticket office to resolve the situation. Yes it was lovely to see the wall but this family will forever remember it as the great slide of China!!
Also had our first encounter with the Chinese paparazzi. They are infatuated with Rhys, and he plays up to them waving, smiling and saying ‘Ni Hao!’ Gavin is happy to let Rhys get all the attention in this situation – in fact the only annoyance for him is when Rhys is asleep so the picture requests turn to him!

View from the van

At the entrance

From the chairlift

Nice view

Ready, set, go!

Chute-ing down the mountain

Gavin is a known fashionista even in Beijing!

Rhys working the paparazzi

ATE: Pastries from a bakery we came across last night. Boys loved the banana bread, ate half the loaf.

Lunch: three plates of dumplings from the restaurant at the base of the chairlift. Originally we were going to get them to go but the taxi driver somehow managed to add a bowl of noodles to our lunch order and was eating them there. The dumplings were really hot, too hot for GnR to eat right away so the waitress brought over a bowl of cold water to speed-cool a few for them. Next thing I know she’s brought out her own chopsticks and starts feeding Gavin and Rhys herself. It was so funny, I’ve never seen Gavin’s cheeks so full of dumplings at once! She really had him stuffed like a chipmunk.

Dinner: Hot pot at restaurant recommended by the hotel. Kind of like Japanese shabu-shabu. Didn’t care for the dipping sauce it came with, fortunately Gavin suggested we try the soy sauce I carry in my purse (usually for Rhys’ rice). Was 10 million times better, he’s a clever one that Gavin!

Check out the chopstick pro!

Steamy shot

Drinks from ‘Happy Lemon’ for dessert. They make a cheese and green tea concoction that Jason wanted to try. Taste is very hard to describe, kind of like bubblegum. He found it addicting, I was happy to leave it at just one sip.