Real travellers like to go off the beaten path to actually discover things that still remain undiscovered by ordinary people. But I’m not a real traveler ; I like to travel in comfort and do the tried and tested. So The Great Wall of China was definitely a must see on my list of things to do during my visit to China.

We walked the section that is accessible from Badaling a small town around 70 km north of Beijing. We started off early enough but the sun was really high by the time we reached so we had to buy the hats being sold at “Chaxi” stand. Vendors were also hawking bottles of cold water, some of them actually frozen!

Hundreds of people climbing the Great Wall

 We got into the free bus which took us to the foot of the wall from which we could begin our lazy ascent. According to Chinese legend, a man can only call himself a man after he has climbed the Great Wall. We had planned to go up to three watchtowers but had to abandon our plans as a water bottle later and a steep gradient that left me breathless made us realise that the wall looked deceptively simple, just lazily snaking up the hillside .

Seemingly easy, the wall has steep gradients in parts

But the Great Wall was a great experience : with a festive atmosphere prevailing with the Chinese national flags fluttering in the wind, the sun beating down strongly and hordes of people puffing their way up, this is truly a must do activity. Of course the more adventurous can climb other steeper parts but not me.

As usual, the arrangements at this tourist spot are faultless – clean restrooms, attentive salespersons in the museum shops and neat orderly crowds. Truly this spectacular construction built over hundreds of years deserves a place in the Wonders of the World.