One of the reasons to stay overnight at Gubei is for the Great Wall. That was our plan for the morning, though Daddy Lim and the kids were not the most enthusiastic. I don’t care. Hoho.
Bfast at the hotel.
The 小菜 was buffet style. They were very Chinese-style though and we barely touched those. Other than us, there was another family in the Inn. I think they barely had much too. We found these oriental slippers and wore them for bfast.
A tad too small for Daddy Lim.
Not only were the slippers cool, the furniture too. This would make a good piece for one of the old school Chinese decor style. Natural wash-out.
Other than the traditional style bfast provided, we pre-ordered bacon, sausages, fried eggs and wanton soup the night before. These, we chomped. Luckily for these or I would have to find another bfast.
Back to the room to get ready. View from our room. So pictorial.
And the girl who die die wanted to try the 辣条, that she said was flaming spicy and had to rescue herself with milk.
All bundled up, we took the 摆渡车 to the bottom of the Great Wall.
This part is the 司马台长城. There is the cable car option, much good news to Daddy Lim and the kids. After some discussion, we decided that we will take the cable car up, then walk down.
There are 10 towers in this part of the Great Wall. Once we were off the cable car, we have the choice of climbing to the 8th tower, which is the highest point and then walk down or go directly to the 5th tower. Of course I opted for the 8th tower. Tower 9 and 10 are not accessible. I duno why.
What interestingly crowded the Great Wall were not people but cats! In fact, we saw so many cats at Gubei.
We started on the path before reaching the little climb to tower 8. It was nothing difficult.
But it was picture perfect with the blue sky in the background.
Then, we started the descent from Tower 8 and the walk was scary. There was basically no protection on both sides of the walkway. I wonder if anybody falls over during peak periods
The “towers” are nothing more than little stone coverings.
Some parts of the walk were steep that I felt like I am safer on my 4s, or to scoot down on my butt. The kids just bounced and skipped off.
I am sure I was like them once upon a time.
For the daring, great pictures would have been made. We are not daring; Daddy Lim was constantly yelling at the kids not to do stupid things. Nevertheless, we got nice pictures too.
We met a family, who helped us with a family picture. I am not sure if they were climbing up or down and were just at the steps for a long time.
We met more cats. They roam the Great Wall a lot more expertly than we do.
The descent ended at tower 2. They blocked off the access to tower 1 and the bridge between tower 1 and the next tower has collapsed. It was a nice walk. Daddy Lim’s knees did act up and I insisted that he took some Panadol and it helped!
Success!
It was a long walk with flights of stairs going up and down after we got off tower 2. On the way down, we met people climbing up and I was very amazed. I was also very glad that I wasnt adventurous enough to coax Daddy Lim and the kids to climb Great Wall. Lol. Else I think they would hate me.
Part of the walk back to the cable car station was along this big lake and we heard this loud low looming sound. We were told by the staff that it was created by the ice/ water freezing/ moving. Super awed by God’s creation.
After the Great Wall, it was time to look for lunch. After so much Chinese food, we decided that it was pizza lunch day.
The waters in the drains and canals that we passed by were all largely frozen. The kids made attempts to break the ice using stones, and cement pieces that they found but the ice was super hard. The fishes were hybernating.
At some point, the kids tried stepping on the ice in the drains and the water was totally frozen.
Lunch!
All cleared!
We chanced upon some kungfu demonstration.
Zaky was more interested in pestering me to buy him an ice cream. Zzzz.
Gone are the little kids, who are easily impressed.
We saw some ice activities and the kids wanted to try.
For RMB78/ pax and unlimited time. These ice activities were not available yesterday. We see staff still building the ice slide. Maybe bcos it was Christmas Eve, there were more people in the town.
These are what interest the kids now. The ice chair is damned cool with 2 blades on the sides and also a blade at the steering.
While the kids workout on the ice, Daddy Lim and I went for coffee. Haha.
We told the kids to hunt for us when they were done. Hunting in progress.
One of the agendas for the afternoon was also to find cash. There is a bus that runs between Beijing City and Gubei but the bus only accepts some Chinese transport app or cash. Both Alipay and WeChat pay don’t work. We needed to find RMB48 per pax.
We were told that there is a foreign currency changing machine. We tried 3x with my passport and it didn’t work. The atms do not accept foreign cards. *panic* Finally, we were pointed to a bank branch about 100m outside the main gate but were told that to try to change currency at the counter is a hassle, which required a long registration process. We were told that the atm at the bank accepts foreign cards. For the RMB200 (about S$40), I was charged S$15.
After much running around, we finally found cash. We says China didn’t need cash? We should have changed some. Zzzz. It was the same when we were done with 故宫 and were told that cash works with buses.
We headed back to the hotel and the kids were happy to laze around. Daddy Lim accompanied me to roam some more. Roaming means snacking. Hoho.
The sun was setting fast and already dark when we picked the kids up for the hot spring. It wasn’t bcos we wanted to soak but to shower in the hot bathrooms. Lol.
We weren’t too hungry after the hot spring and intended to buy some 小吃. We got these delicious 肉夹馍. Plenty of beef.
The auntie said that we can keep warm in the noodle house nearby while she prepped the food and would sent them over. We ended up eating noodles too. Lol.
Back at the hotel, we were gifted little gifts bcos it is Christmas!
The apples were not the sweetest. In fact, one of them tasted like green apple. Why do I have to eat a red apple that tasted like green apple? Lol.
We didn’t countdown bcos we are always tired people. Lol. Good night!
Mummy Lim
