Well you probably can but we didn't!!! CJ took a day off of school and we decided to go the the Great Wall. The day I went to school with him we had asked one of the teachers about the buses to take to get to the Great Wall. She wrote it down for us and CJ checked before we left to make sure he had the right directions written down. The 1st bus we caught was 109. It was about 7 stops and we had to get off to catch the 919 bus. That one took us over an hour and 1/2 to get to Yanquing. From there we got off with the intention of catching bus 925.
As soon as we got off a taxi driver came over and started talking to us. He was trying to get us to take the taxi. We figured he just wanted the fare and saw tourists and figured we were an easy mark. Now we realize he was trying to help. A young Chinese girl had heard some of the conversion and asked if we speak English. She said, "I just called my uncle and he said the bus we needed wasn't running." She said you can go over there as she pointed around the block, and the little bus will take you. She then walked away and came back with a ride for us. She pointed to a man on a bike pulling a flatbed cart. It was about a 4ft x 5ft board, padded and covered with a bright red velour blanket. The driver motioned for us to sit down which we did. He took us for a ride down the street and around the block. He pulled over and pointed at the little bus which was actually a van. There were 5 people in it already and once we climbed aboard away we went.
I think the driver and his front seat passenger were husband and wife. At one point the van pulled over at a little store and they got out and bought a couple bags of what was either lime or cement or some type of powder. About a half hour later they pulled over again. This time the lady next to me handed the driver some money. He and the front seat lady ran across the street to a vendor stand. They came back with 2 watermelons and handed one to the lady in the back. We took another very long ride along a back road. There were farmers field and trees and mountains all along the route. The driver then pulled over to a man with an orange jacket that appeared to be a road crew worker. The woman in the front greeted him as "baba" which means dad and handed him the watermelon. They chatted a few seconds and we continued on. This ride took about an hour. As we pulled into the entrance to a little town, the driver told us this was our stop. CJ asked which way to the wall and he pointed and said look for a large "men" which is a gate, door or entrance. We proceeded in the direction he pointed.
We were in Sihai, which is a small town lined with small houses and little stores. Some of the childred would look at us and start giggling. We walked for a while and did not see the Great Wall entrance. We turned around and took another road with the same result. We saw a van like the one that had brought us there. That driver told us the Great Wall was very far away. He may not have known about the entrance we were trying to get to.
We decided to head back to Yanquing and catch the bus home. This driver took the main road back and picked up a few passengers. One lady sat next to me and CJ was on the other side of me. We drove a little while and then came to a road block. The road up ahead was being worked on. So we had to take a detour. We made left turn down this dirt road. On each side were very old one story brick buildings. They were long with 3 or 4 archways each. It appeared that if you went in the archway on either side were doors to the insides of the building. This was a very bumpy road. After we passed the buildings the dirt road continued through a field which got even bumpier. We traveled this road for a few more miles. It was bumpy and dusty and the driver appeared to be in a hurry. I believe the 3 of us now have whiplash, bumps and bruises and battered backs. There was a lady hearding goats. I couldn't take any pictures on this route because I would not have been able to hold the camera steady. Finally we got back on the main road and the driver got us to the bus stop. We caught the next 919 bus back to Beijing.
Although CJ felt bad because he thought it was a wasted day because we never actually got on the Great Wall, we still had a great experience. We said we wanted to go somewhere together that neither on of us had been and I think that was it. We are still going to get a real trip to the Great Wall because as CJ said, "you can't come all the way to China and not see the Great Wall."
It was hard to take good pictures on the bus, but I still feel I got some really great pictures.
As you get out of Beijing, you can start to see the mountains in the distance.
These are on the route headed towards the Great Wall.
Snapped a quick picture of this guy in Yanqing.
