We went hiking on the Great Wall today. We left the city at 8 and drove about an hour to the base. Apparently we were still technically in Beijing, and the city encompasses even the rural areas outside. It was about a 40 minute hike up to the Great Wall (if we had been smarter, we would have taken the gondola up, but we thought it would be easy to walk). I think I could forego a gym membership here and just hike up and down the wall. We spent about four more hours just walking the wall, the stairs are pretty steep in some areas, and not so steep in others, so I got some nice cross-training in, and the view (despite the fog) was pretty spectacular.
When we got to the bottom we were assaulted by villagers selling misspelled t-shirts and every Chinese trinket you could imagine. I wasn't really in the mood to haggle after the hike, but some people managed to talk them down to about one tenth of their asking price, so I'm thinking when we go to the market in a few weeks, I'll be well-versed in getting a bargain.
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