China Vacation - Day Ten

The whole 27th April morning was terrible. In order to earn commission, this tour guide of ours brought us to two places that sucked our money –__-

Not only that, this smart fella brought us to Balading Great Wall of China (another World Heritage Site) at noon when the sun is at its powerful mode that could instantly kill anyone who goes against it. Alright, I am exaggerating here. Since Great Wall of China is in my MUST-GO list, I would just go with the plan. In fact, I could not do anything about it.

Since all of the oldies had already walked up this Great Wall and did not have the intention to go for another round, I was the only one who went while the rest stayed in the van, chatting.

Location: The starting point
Time: 1310
Difficulty: N/A
Goal: To reach the first tower
Status: I was very excited to be able to set foot on this World Wonder. Plus, I was going alone. Adventurous, huh?

 Views from the first tower

Location: The first tower
Difficulty: Easy
Goal: To reach the second tower
Status: I was getting more excited. From the picture above, you can tell that walking up this Great Wall is exhausting. But how exhausting is exhausting? We shall see..

 Views from the second tower

Location: The second tower
Difficulty: Extremely hard
Goal: To reach the third tower
Status: It was not easy to reach the second tower. No wonder those who have diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and heart disease are not allowed to continue after the first tower. The journey to the second tower is challenging and energy consuming. Most of the tourists falter when they reached here and do not go any further. As in my case, the thought of the sacrifices made by the ancestors in building this Great Wall successfully kept me moving forward.

 Views from the third tower

Location: Halfway to the fourth tower
Time: 1340
Difficulty: Moderate
Goal: To reach the fourth tower
Status: I wanted to go further. However, due to time constrain, I had to turn back. I regretted to not continue to the fourth and fifth tower (make the rest wait for me in the van wtf), which I personally believe that this tower should be the peak of this section of the Great Wall.

Water Cube

Bird’s Nest

There was a conflict between us and the tour guide when he told us that entering National Stadium was not included in our tour package and therefore, we were only allowed to talk pictures at the worst location, as explained by the pictures above.

I was fortunate enough that the plan to the Great Wall was today as we had a foot massage before dinner. Lucky me, could give my poor overworked legs a nice and enjoying massage :)

I believe you are able to guess what’s for our dinner that night. Yeah, another blardy TEN plates of dumplings with additional FIVE side dishes. At the same restaurant where we had our dinner on the first day we landed Beijing. That dinner was the most painful one –_- Previously, I tried ten each. However, I had to make a pass for this one. I only ate five.