Today we had one main visit planned for the day: we would go see the great wall of China, the country’s national symbol. But first we had to go there with our bus. We left the rush of Beijing, and the landscape changed quite quickly. And while the density of dirt in the air seemed to drop the further away we got from Beijing, the density of propaganda posters seemed to increase.

The landscape we drove through seemed kind of desolate – it was very dry, and, even though it was March, already quite warm. The by far most abundant color we saw on the trip was brown.

We saw the Chinese wall itself from quite far away already – it is a very impressive sight. Our tour guide brought us to a part of the Chinese wall that isn’t so well know to tourists so that there wouldn’t be so many people. As we hiked up the mountain, the wall slowly cam closer.

It is really quite an experience to walk along the Chinese wall, even though it is also a very tiring one. And let me tell you: what you might’ve heard about the wall being very steep is absolutely true. I would definitely recommend anyone planning on visiting it to wear good hiking shoes with a good grip and to stay away from the edges because (at least at the part we visited) there is in many places not even a small wall at the side of the path. We also quickly found out that you should bring a lot to drink when visiting the Chinese wall. But, as said, I liked it very much and it is a very impressive building – so here are some photos.

We then had lunch in a restaurant at the Chinese wall. It was something new to me that the plates and cups were brought vacuum-sealed in plastic, and the company’s symbol kind of reminded me of North Korea’s Juche flame. When I googled the company name (yes, I had mobile data in China), which was simply the name of a small town, I found it to be located only a few kilometers away from the border to the DPRK. Whether there’s any connection I don’t know, I might just be a little too paranoid at times.

When we got back to Beijing, we were brought to a “tea ceremony”, which conveniently took place in one of the largest tea shops of the town. It wasn’t really a tea ceremony in the traditional Chinese sense, rather it was much more of a marketing action for the tea house to sell more of it’s tea. Nonetheless, the tea samples that we got tasted quite good and it was a fairly nice ending to a very exhausting day.