Hopped on a bus at 6:30am that too me to the Great Wall of China with a tour group. Initially I had no intention of being that kind of tourist, but after I saw how difficult it would be to get there, I caved in. It worked out quite well though. Everyone was sleeping on the 2.5 hour bus ride there so things were pretty relaxed.
Once we arrived, I had several options: the short route which consisted of a gondola ride, a medium route by walking, and a long route also by walking. I took the long route because I wanted to see as much as possible and fly my drone around cool areas. I didn't want to miss any cool opportunity. As it turns out, I wish I had taken the gondola.
So there are many different places you can go on the Great Wall. Badaling is the closest to Beijing, but it is also highly populated with tourists. Jinshanling Is farther away so it has less tourists but is a bit more difficult. After reading that I thought, "ok I'm willing to have a bit more physical activity for less people." The hike was not as easy as they said. Skinny stone steps usually over a foot high were quite prevalent. I felt like no matter how much water I drank, I sweated more. While hiking the wall with 4 cameras was hard, I can't imagine having to fight a battle there.
Unbelievable is an accurate description of the Great Wall of China. It astounded me that people managed to build something that big, so long ago. The first wall was started around 200 BC. The towers sit on the tops of mountain ranges almost like something in Lord of the Rings.
I flew my drone around and got some amazing video that I'll be putting together when I get back to LA. While I have 2 batteries, I only used 1 battery due to the intense hiking, high winds, and some scattered showers. Regardless, I know I definitely got some amazing footage.
Did some editing when I got back to my hostel, then I went back to 159 because I needed to have that chicken back in my life. I broke one of my rules of eating the same food more than once but it was worth it. Instead of the tentacles from the depths of hell, I had sautéed green beans which were quite flavorful and cooked to perfection. I spent the rest of the night with Marcin and Diana catching up on what we each did that day and having other fascinating conversations. Definitely a relaxing way to finish my time in Beijing. Also, I'm not posting too many pics of the Great Wall right now because I really want to dedicate a lot of time into the edits. What I have in my head is so beautiful and I just can't complete it here in China.