the great wall strikes back

Yesterday a group of us went back to the Great Wall. A girl in our group sprained her elbow the day before we went last time, and so we went back so she could see it. We went to a different spot, Mutianyu, which was great. There were a lot less people than Badaling.

We hired two taxis for the day, which was a good way to do it. We got Lester, a Singaporean guy in our group who speaks Mandarin to bargain the price on the phone, but when they arrived they tried to jack up the price! But we got them down a fair bit to 550 (A$83) yuan per cab, which was still pretty good. It's kind of annoying not being able to converse with cab drivers, but some of them are a lot of fun. 

They had this ski lift thing that you could take up the mountain to the base of the great wall. It was pretty cool. Though someone in the group said that when they got on their seat, a bit of metal fell off! Hopefully nothing too important though...
We met this Aussie girl half way up to the top. She's from Liverpool in Sydney, and when she brought out this sign we thought it was hilarious! Trust an Aussie, I guess. I'm having a fair few opportunities to practice my French too, which has been lots of fun, even if it is just a few quick words.
I got Pippa to take this photo specifically with Dad in mind. Not even a rusty railing to lean on! 

The view from the window was amazing though. It was a blue day but with some haze and clouds, and it really looked like those Chinese paintings where there are layers of mountains that get lighter and lighter. Here's a photo of the view that I put together from five shots. It doesn't really capture it, but it's a pretty good attempt.

After our encounter with the Australian girl, we were all filled with a sense of bogan patriotism. It was decided that the best way to express this was to have a beer on the great wall. This part of the wall is much less touristy, but because there isn't a tourist centre at the base of it, there are hawkers on the wall selling ice creams, snacks, cold drinks, and yes, beer. We got a bunch of poms to take these photos of us. By the way, to toast in Mandarin you say Gumbei (rhymes with Bombay). 

Then to get back down there was a Magic Mountain style toboggan. It went for just under 2kms, and was lots of fun. Unfortunately I got stuck behind a slow family, but hey, if I slowed right down I could get enough room to go fast around the corners and get up on the side a bit. 
After we got back, a big group of us went to find a sports bar to watch the Wallabies trounce the Springboks. The funny thing was that on the wall we ran into some South Africans wearing Springbok jumpers! So we had a bit of a laugh with them and talked up our teams. 

It was a good night, but I was very tired from walking on the wall and the German beer I was drinking went straight to my head! But yeh, a good night.