Yesterday I hiked The Great Wall of China. I did two sections, Jinshanling and Simitai. The closest section to Beijing is Badaling, and from I've heard and read it's been completely overrun by tourists. The sections I did are less traveled and more challenging.
I woke up to a monster thunderstorm and thought I was in for a long, miserable day. But it seemed to have rained long enough to scare away the tourists and then stop. The bad weather actually made for some good sightseeing, as it made the area look ghostly and mysterious.
I went with a few people from my hostel but managed to separate myself from them, so for long stretches I felt like I had the whole thing to myself.
There are sections of the wall which are in poor condition. Some portions are incredibly steep.
With the rain and the mud it was pretty treacherous in places. It's boggles the mind to consider how hard it must have been to build it.
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