Sunny Joy

Not all the people prefer to travel with the group organized by travel agency, including me. So our trip to Beijing in this May was entirely planned by ourselves.

Here I should say thanks to my friend in Beijing, who gave us useful advice for getting to Badaling Great Wall. This is helpful for only those who are interested in self-travel.

Firstly, we got up early and reached De Sheng Men bus station, which is at the north of Beijing City. Since our hotel was close to Temple of Heaven, which is at the south, it took a bit longer.

When we got there, many people had been waiting orderly for a long time in queues. So we quickly rushed to one of the queues and waited for our turn to get on the bus in patience.

Just when we were about to get on the bus, the ticket seller told us we should have gone to another queue nearby, while the bus we've beein waiting for was actually destined for YanQing instead of Badaling.

Poor guys! We had to move to the right queue as the ticket seller instructed. It is important to make sure that you get on the right bus to Badaling.

The bus number is 919, which costs 12RMB per person. It takes about 1.5 hours to Badaling.

It was time for lunch when we arrived at the site. The food outside the site was extrordinarily expensive, almost three to four times as much as usual, while the taste was much worse than usual. So it is wise to take some picnic food if you want save more budget. In fact, most restaurants at the tourist sites can hardly provide delicious food at reasonable price. We have expected that before we started off.

In China, there is a proverb, saying "any one who fails to conquer the Great Wall is not a true man." I used to think it is just exaggeration or promotional words to attract more and more tourists to challenge the ancient wall.

However, it was the trip to Badaling Great Wall that proved the truth. It was not so easy as I have ever imagined to climb over, although what we actually have covered was large numbers of steps, which were not always in flatness. Sometimes, I needed to bend my waist, climbing upwards, or I had to keep straight, cautiously jogging downwards, with the burning sun above my head. At that time, the only thing that can lessen my tiredness was Water!

Break time!

My husband said jokingly, "I've told you it is hard, but you just insist on!"
"Yes... I should have been serious about your suggestions. But I do not feel regretted at all! If I took your advice, I would never know what the Great Wall is."

Two and a half hours later, we just quitted, to be more exact, I give up. I felt too exhausted to walk on and just wanted to have a good rest.

Anyway, the trip for the whole day can be concluded as sweat with joy. Ha!