Day5   from The Great Wall at Badaling to Fragrant Hill
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The day was due to be long, so we made an early start.   Breakfast was good and the weather appeared to be a little cooler.  The hotel staff  came out to cheer us off and we were on our way toward the Great Wall at Badaling.  Along the way we passed some real characters going about their business.
Badaling is probably the best known section of the wall and is very popular with tourists.  As we approached the wall it was clear why.   It rose up on both sides and was so steep it didn't seem possible for people to be able to walk on it.
Our guides had decided that we would not stop at Badaling but instead would continue on to the Juyong Pass.  It was hard not to stop when you were surrounded by the wall on all sides and we became sceptical of their decision.  We were wrong to question that decision.  Where they took us was phenomenal.  Even though we had already visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu and were amazed at that section,  we were in total awe of what was in front of us at the Juyong Pass.  All the way down the valley toward the pass there were sections of the wall traversing mountain ridges on both sides..
These photos are of an area of the wall under renovation just prior to the Juyong Pass.  The scale of the wall is phenomenal and to see it snake through the valleys and across the mountain ridges could only start to make you consider the effort originally used in the construction.  Several hundred yards down the road we arrived at the Juyong Pass.
The scale of the wall at the Juyong Pass was enormous.   It snaked from the valley where we had arrived up both steep sides.  People were walking up to the top and it was apparent that some sections were so steep they were struggling to make it.  We only had a break of one hour at the Juyong Pass, it just wasn't enough.  We still had a long way to go to our next hotel and it was one we had been warned about!  We carried on from the wall along undulating roads and soon arrived at our lunch stop.  This was a restaurant above a Friendship Store.  The meal was excellent and the restaurant was very busy.  Even busier when we arrived!
The Friendship Stores are run by the Chinese government and are basically department stores.  There was a large range of goods on sale, silks, food, ceramics, clothes, jewellery etc.  As with all stores haggling was expected.  This means that you take no notice of the price displayed and often negotiate a price well below it. There were also handmade goods on sale with local people making or painting them in the store.  We were conscious of our short visit and the fact that we would have to put any purchases on one of the support vehicles.
The ride after lunch undulated through urban and agricultural areas and the weather was starting to get very close.  Even though the temperature was very hot the guides were becoming increasingly concerned about a storm ahead of us.  Apparently it was a thunder storm and the sky was darkening.   Personally we were looking forward to a good downpour but there were obvious dangers with this.  A decision was made to push on and hopefully reach the hotel as soon as possible. We arrived at the Ziwei Hotel at approx. 6.30 and were told our room was on the 10th floor.  When we arrived in the room, what we thought to be light-hearted comments were found to be fact, we found rat poison in every corner of the room.
This prompted a decision to 'eat out' and we were lucky to find a nice restaurant nearby!
Yes we found Ronald Mc. Donald and enjoyed our first western style meal. Heaven!!!!!!! It's funny how in a place as large as Beijing you wouldn't expect to see anyone you knew!   The restaurant was full of our fellow cyclists who had obviously made the same decision as us!
The meal was great and there was more to come with our visit to a local hutong, an area where the local Chinese ate, shopped and lived.   Adrian and I went on to this area for a beer with Steve and Chris, two other cyclists we had met on the trip.  To say it was an experience to visit the hutong at night would be an understatement, it was quite scary.  Time for bed, we have another long day ahead of us.

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