April 15, 2015, Beijing, China and the Great Wall

Today we started at 9:30 am giving us more time to enjoy our luxurious hotel and lavish breakfast buffet.  We were meeting the rest of the World cruisers for our special event:  lunch at the Great Wall.

Typical high rise complexes in Beijing  This complex can hold 30,000 people

First we drove up a windy road to a section aways away from the main entrance where we walked up to this beautiful area with tables and chairs for over 160 guests.  

Flowers in bloom, I think they are cherry blossoms, but if not, they are still beautiful

Flower centerpieces, white tablecloths and coverings on the chairs, uniformed waiters, cocktail stations, and a beautiful sunny day.  

All along the route we saw light pink trees in bloom.

The setting was at the foot of a smaller section of the wall which was accesible.  We arrived early so while eveyone drank wine, I climbed the wall.  At the top was a vista of the surrounding area.  I could see the 4 other busses from the ship arrive.

Below is the lunch venue

The lunch was very good, the company very nice.  We sat with my bridge partner John, his girlfriend Wendy, and three other couples.  Two of them met on another cruise and have been cruising together since.  One has one of the owners' suites.  He says they stock his frig with wine and beer every day.  They have a dining table, couch, and even a guest bathroom and a butler. There are 6 of these suites in the back of the ship.  We have been to the back, and it can be noisy with the engines.  

Still at the lunch venue

gosh it was beautiful

This section of the wall, called Badaling, and is  probably the most visited.  We decided to do the difficult route which is also the steepest, but not as crowded.

On the tough section of Badaling area.

After lunch, our bus took us to the main area where we had two choices of direction to climb - easy or hard.  Naturally we chose hard.  It was way less crowded as well.  But the steps were very very steep, maybe 50 or 60 degrees.  We made it to the top in about 30 minutes and saw magnificent views.  

This poor young man had run up the wall and apparently didn't feel very well coming down.

Yes, they even had a toilet at the top.

This doesn't really do justice to how steep it was.

After this sunny experience that couldn't have been better - flowering trees, vast vistas, and clear cool weather, we drove the 4 1/2 hours back to the ship.