The lengths--heights--we'll go to avoiding holiday weekend crowds.
Qingming weekend meant our usual activities of soccer and baseball were cancelled and Randy had Monday off. What better time, we thought, than to devote the weekend to exploring some Great Wall that we haven't gotten around to yet.
On Sunday after Mass, we were caught up in ridiculous Badaling-bound traffic. Changping is on the way out of Beijing to that popular piece of the Great Wall. What is normally a forty-five minute drive stretched to almost two hours. After that, we knew we could only try to climb around some Great Wall that was relatively close to us, but without the crowds. Our target Sunday, then, was a tower that we have seen many times but have never reached. It's actually in the header picture above, the small tower in the distance.
More after the jump
To reach it, we clambered up a dirt path on the side of the road. For years we've driven past it, never noticing the break in the fence and the way up. Once up there, we could see up close something we have only seen from a distance before.
There were actually two towers on this ridge. One that we have seen (again, from afar) many, many times and on Sunday we could enter.
And the other tower one reduced to flattened rubble in the center of the picture below.
The stone face had crumbled away to expose the construction, which, if you, like us, are into that kind of thing is really interesting. On twitter I compared it to Jenga.
From up here we could see the tower we most often visit and photograph, but from the other side.
And a familiar scene from a slightly different angle.
Sunday's was only a few hours' trip, but it was great to be out without any crowds.
On Sunday after Mass, we were caught up in ridiculous Badaling-bound traffic. Changping is on the way out of Beijing to that popular piece of the Great Wall. What is normally a forty-five minute drive stretched to almost two hours. After that, we knew we could only try to climb around some Great Wall that was relatively close to us, but without the crowds. Our target Sunday, then, was a tower that we have seen many times but have never reached. It's actually in the header picture above, the small tower in the distance.
More after the jump
To reach it, we clambered up a dirt path on the side of the road. For years we've driven past it, never noticing the break in the fence and the way up. Once up there, we could see up close something we have only seen from a distance before.
There were actually two towers on this ridge. One that we have seen (again, from afar) many, many times and on Sunday we could enter.
And the other tower one reduced to flattened rubble in the center of the picture below.
The stone face had crumbled away to expose the construction, which, if you, like us, are into that kind of thing is really interesting. On twitter I compared it to Jenga.
From up here we could see the tower we most often visit and photograph, but from the other side.
And a familiar scene from a slightly different angle.
Sunday's was only a few hours' trip, but it was great to be out without any crowds.
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