You can visit several portions of the wall from Beijing. I chose to visit Simatai as it is much less crowded than the closer parts, and many parts are still in their original condition. Other sections, such as Badiling are only one hour away by bus, but look brand new and are so busy that it is difficult to move. On the bus, I met three French students traveling through China. After a painful 4 ½ hour bus ride, we finally get to Jinshanling to start the 10km walk up and down to Simatai. The French and I covered the distance in about 4 hours. The manpower required to build this 15000km long barrier is unfathomable. The terrain is extremely rough and visitors must come off the wall at times to avoid dangerous passes. At one point, I had to jump down 2 meters to a very small platform because I did not take the “safe route” off the wall. My hiking boots, which have been idle since Tanzania, were given another chance and were much appreciated. The temperature must have been in the low 30s Celsius, and the humidity near 100% I’ve never sweated so much in my life. I was able to wring my clothes!
Once we reached Simatai, I zip lined down to the parking lot from the wall, which was at least 500m. Jeremy took some pictures of my descent and is supposed to email them to me. I will add them to the site as soon as I receive them. Another 3 ½ hour on the bus and I was back in Beijing. I was supposed to have dinner with the French but by the time we came back to town, they were ready to skip dinner and go to sleep. I figured that if I went back to my hotel, the same would happen to me, so I got off at the Zhiolong hotel. I spotted an advertising claiming “All you can eat dim sum for 48 yuan”. Once in the restaurant, I ask the waitress if that deal is available. She spoke English quite well and tells me that I can order one cold and two warm dishes. I checked with her 3 times that I would only have to pay 48 yuan for that. I ate delicious shrimps, beef and eel rolls. I asked for the bill and it showed 240 kuai!!! I asked her what was going on and she answered that I was ordering a la carte, not the deal. After much arguing with the manager, I paid 48 kuai plus one beer, and even received a small present for my trouble. I was about ready to go to sleep but figured I would have one last drink in nearby Simatai before going home. There I met two English lads and an American. We talked for a while and I then met a French and a Swiss girl. We all headed to Nanjie bar, then bus bar. Bus bar is an extremely dodgy place patronized strictly by African guys and Russian girls. I cleverly managed to get rid of the guys and headed to a café with the girls…
We were about to go out separate ways around 2:30 when we started talking about the flag ceremony taking place every morning at sun rise on Tiamemen Square. It was also Julie’s last day in Beijing (after studying here for a year) so we decided that we needed to attend this symbolic ritual. We quickly dropped by the Swiss girl’s place to grab her laptop so she could download her 800+ pictures on it with my USB cable. We then hit my hotel so she could use the cable, I put on my rollerblades, and we hopped into a cab to Tiamenen. We reached the square around 4:30am. There must have been at least 1000 people there. 
Most people attend the ceremony before a big day of sightseeing, not at the end of a hard day’s night. The sun did not officially come up until 5:30am, at which point there must have been 10,000 people present! I spotted one other international tourist, all others were Chinese. (By the way: I did not see the sun once in Beijing because of the pollution. Julie says she saw it 5 times during her year-long stay, but only during winter.) The flag ascended the pole as the Chinese national anthem played loudly on speakers. I then rollerbladed back to my hotel, took a much deserved shower and passed out, after having been up 24 hours straight climbing the wall and bar-hopping all night.
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