Tuesday, May 10, 2011

N. China - Day 9, Part 2 - Great Wall (Mutianyu)

"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of." - Ogden Nash

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N. China
Day 9 - 7th November - Great Wall (Mutianyu)
(Part 2)

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Mounting a cannon

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Sitting near a cannon

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Really strange souvenir to take

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Mountains and sole leaf on a branch

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Interior of a tower

On top of this tower, the wind suddenly threw up a flurry of leaves, which was a magnificent sight:

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Flying leaves and delighted Chinese

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Flying leaves without delighted Chinese

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Another mountain view, with unrestored sections in the distance

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Another mountain view, with unrestored sections far in the distance

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Restored section, cable car station and Homage to Mao ("忠于毛主席" - "Loyalty to Chairman Mao")

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A Red Bull cost ¥15. I think on Taishan near the top it had cost ¥10.

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Another near-vertical section

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"Vendors only" - this is how they avoid paying the admission fee

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"Flattering Angle"

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Yet another vertical section

And then, we came to the end of the restored section of the Wall.

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"Non-tourist section. No admission!"

Naturally, there was no fun in stopping there, so with some other intrepid tourists, we continued. Well I did anyway - Charis stopped after a while.

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Ruins stretching into oblivion

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The overgrown unrestored section

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Unrestored section and graffiti

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At parts the wall (in the sense of what was to our left and/or right) had eroded away, making for the possibility of an exciting tumble down the slope

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Ruined tower

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From my height, I could survey the wall extending into the distance - and decided to stop there, as it wouldn't get better. While it would probably get harder (clambering around towers and the like)

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More unrestored sections

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A survey of the distance I had hiked, with the paen to Mao in the background

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Ruined tower

I then made my way back

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Graffiti

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Unrestored section which ran perpendicular to the official route

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Pensive man

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Gateway to the Unknown

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Charis Climbing

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I'm not sure wth these ang mohs were doing.
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