The Great Wall

Today 8 of us took a day trip to the Great Wall. We left Somerset at 9:30am and headed to Mark's place to pick up the rest of the group. After 2 hours drive witnessing crazy behaviours on the roads we arrived at Jinshanling. We had decided to go to a section of the wall further from Beijing to avoid tourists. We started by taking a telecabin to reach the 1st tower of our expedition. Quite an experience as it was the slowest telecabin ever. To the poin we wondered if we would eventually make it to the top. Once at the 1st tower we started our hike. 10 km between Jinshanling and Simatai. 10 km of beauiful landscape. 10 km of going up and down folowing the hills. In total 30 towers. I learned that 2 towers are separated by the distance covered by 2 arrows, to make sure ennemies would have no chance to pass the wall. To be honnest some sections of the wall are quite challenging as they have not been restaured and you climb more than you walk (Mum, Dad, remember the way up to the Cedar forest in Avignon, same story here, except no trees). For sure this hike is not to be taken if you're not in good physical conditions, but if you can do it, highly recommended as very few people take it.
30 towers later we arrived in Simatai and all of us went for the zip line to go down. 1 minute hanging in the void on top of the lake. Quite an experience (and much better than another 20min walk down). One on the bank of the lake we took a boat to reach the entrance of the site. Boat was designed to take 8 people and of course 13 of us got in it. The driver made sure to go fast enough so Ainoa and myself got wet :( not fun for us but lot's of laugh for the others.
We drove back to Beijing and most of us slept in the car, exhausted after such an amazing day.
After a well deserved dinner at Jin Ding Xuan, the most famous Cantonese restaurant in Beijing, I am going to bed for sure dreaming about the beautiful landscape I have seen today.
PS: Pictures will come as soon as I have processed them.