Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Great Wall Trek, Day Five. June 25, 2015: Gubeikou to Jinshanling

15.4 kilometers with 866 meters of elevation gain.

We ate breakfast, bid a temporary farewell to our guest house hosts (we would see them again on our last hiking day), and boarded the van.

Today's hike was the longest of our trip -- up to the Gubeikou Wall, over to a military base, down the Gubeikou Wall and around the base, then up a bit, down a bit, and up a bit again to walk on the restored Jinshanling Wall on the other side of the base.

The trailhead for today's section...


Up we went...





















Photo by Alex










Lunch!




Heading down to avoid the military base



Trees!


Wild cherries!

An abandoned home

Fields






Entering Jinshanling area


Jinshanling -- restored and touristy









Trash and recycling receptacles!  We're entering tourist-land.


Extremely restored Wall





Our end point of the day -- the traditional tourist's entrance to Jinshanling Wall




We and General Qi (of the Ming Dynasty...
Qi reinforced much of the Wall in the Beijing area).  

Mr. Lee and Jimmy



Carvings illustrating the Wall's history, from defense to tourism

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We stayed at the nearby Jinshanling Hotel after our walk.  The hotel is situated right at the base of the Jinshanling Wall and feels oh-so-touristy.  We definitely enjoyed the Guest House Jumanyuan better, but hey...this was a free upgrade from tenting, so I have no complaints.

The next day, we'd come back to the Wall at the Jinshanling entrance and hike 7.67 kilometers (with 697 meters of elevation gain) along restored Wall to the Simatai region.  I'll post that trip report late tomorrow evening.



2 comments:

unstrung said...

Always enjoy reading of your adventures! So many great photos. The little ones are growing too fast in my opinion, though!

Patricia Ellis Herr, Alexandra Herr, and Sage Herr said...

Thanks, Unstrung!

Yes, they are growing quickly. I'm enjoying each stage of their childhood as they move through it. :)