You are not a man if you have not been to......

THE GREAT WALL !
不登长城就不是好汉!

Climbing The Great Wall was indeed an amazing experience. Plus, it is a detoxification journey because you will sweat a lot. We chose Badaling great wall for our first experience as we were told that it suits first timer the best.

We travelled to beijing north station and bought a ticket at the counter. I would advice you to buy the ticket one or two days earlier as the train to badaling is very limited. We met a guy from Singapore and he told us that he can only buy the 'standing' ticket because he was late. Standing ticket means you have to stand all the way throughout the journey.


The train travelled around 110km/h which is pretty fast. The seats are spacious and they can turn the seats around.

When you reach the station, you will see this sign or you can just follow the crowd. All of them will go to the same place for sure.



The front door of Badaling.

They do sell tickets in the train. They will tell you that the queue is very long and try to persuade you to buy the combo ticket (great wall+museum). We chose to buy the tickets at the counter instead as we don't really trust any ticket agent/tour agent in China after the trip to Lv Shun. The best thing is they offer student price too! (RM 22.50 if I'm not mistaken)

Once you get in, you will see what awaits you in the beginning of the journey. Be prepared for sure.

We took the first picture together at the beginning of the climb. We were still very semangat at the very first place.



There's a few place with stairs and some without stairs. But, the slope are steep. very very steep. It was like 60 or 75 degree. Luckily there's handle all along the way so that we can hold it to support our body so that we can go further. Do wear a pair of good shoes if you do not want to roll down the great wall.

This picture was taken before we pass the first hill. Look at the slope!

We finished the great wall in 2 hours plus. It was pretty fast actually. The reason is because our train reached there around 11am and our train back to beijing was 3pm. So, we didn't rest much because we were afraid that we will missed the train.

If you are going to visit Badaling, do walk till the end as the scenery will be different and the sense of achievement is very fullfilling. We met a few people who went there with a tour and they told us that their tour guide asked them to walk back when they reach the first hill. They do not have enough time to finish their journey. They do sell souvenirs and food at the exit.

There's buses at the exit which will send you to Beijing city. Or you can just walk for 10-20 minutes from the exit to the main entrance and then you can take the train back. The taxi driver there told us that the walk will take us about 50 minutes and he wanted to charge us RMB 100 for that. We didn't take the taxi as we were not rushing for time at all. Luckily the walk was short enough :D

I do think that your stamina must be real good to complete the whole journey. Bring more water and also some snack. Btw, the toilet is very far from each other and we will need to walk very far to the toilet. I didn't went in and hence I can't tell how's the toilet. :)

alright, that's all for badaling.