Our Great Walk of the Great Wall!!

Oh my goodness you guys!!! What a crazy day! We just walked a portion of the Great Wall of China! We decided to walk an area that was close to Beijing since we didnt want to go to far out because it would have cost us alot more money. We found a tour that took us out to the area of the wall that we wanted to walk. Since it takes about 3.5 hours one way, we had to leave extremely early in the morning, like 6 a.m. The part of the wall that we walked was the Shanhaiguan Pass. The cost to walk the wall was CNY 35 ($5.50 CAD). We only walked a small portion of this pass since this pass extends quite a long way and we had a long ride back into Beijing. There are many different spots along the pass that you could start at but we thought it would be cool to actually start at the beginning of the wall.

We started our "great walk" at the Laolongtou Great Wall (Old Dragon's Head) which is the eastern starting point of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. This section of the wall is called the Old Dragon's Head because from the side, it looks like a dragon drinking the water from the Bohai Sea. The Laolongtou Great Wall is comprised of the Chenghai Pavilion, the Nereus Temple and the Nanhaokou (Southern Estuary) Pass and the Ninghai City.

Chenghai Pavilion
This pavilion is the most celebrated artitectural structure of this portion of the wall. It's a two-storey brick and wood building the the Emperor's of the Qing Dynasty would visit to worship their ancestors and to leave poems and inscriptions. There are many poems and inscriptions left on tablets by famous poets.

Nereus Temple
The Nereus Temple is 0.2 miles from the start of the Laolongtou Great Wall. It consists of the Drum Tower, the Nereus Bridge and the Hall of the Goddess of Heaven. Inside the temple is a sculpture of Nereus, Goddess of Heaven.

Nanhaokou Pass & Ninghai City
The Ninghai City & Nanhaokou Pass were built during the Ming Dynasty. Flanking the city gates to the north and the west are watchtowers that guard the South China Sea. The Nanhaokou Pass is ranked as the #1 pass of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall.

Walking the Great Wall of China was a great experience for all of us. We may have only seen a small part of it but it was still such a great thing for us to experience on our first trip to China!