This was by far my favorite part of the trip and an experience I will treasure for some time to come! It was so special! I’ve been to other parts of the Great Wall and this one was the most special. Not to mention that it was lightly snowing with ominous clouds that added to the beautiful morning. You take the cable car up the wall and can walk the section before either taking a chairlift down or as we opted, a toboggan! I really enjoyed this day so much and it’s part of what makes Beijing and China so special.

Taking the cable car up all bundled up in layers before I lost one of my gloves. I have an unfortunate knack for just losing one glove.

The section we went to is called “mutianyu

After calling it an early night, we woke up bright early and headed down to a fabulous buffet breakfast. By bright and early I’m talking 6am. Which isn’t that early for me these days, but for the average human it is quite early. After failing to get a didi that wanted to drive us to the further part of the Great Wall we had selected, the hotel grabbed us a cab that would wait for us and bring us back. If you go to the section of the Great Wall that we did I highly recommend hiring a cab to wait for you. It is more pricey, but worth it! I know you can take a bus up to this section as well.

You can just feel the history and gravity of what many call the “Greatest Wonder of the World.”

Stunning and ominous. The night before we had serendipitously watched a program on TV about the wall which was really interesting as it talked more about the intricate construction and strategy of the watch towers.

This is me at age 10 and 14 at the Great Wall! Different sections but wow time is a magical thing. I distinctly remember sitting in a tour bus at age 10 and writing in my journal “I hope to walk the whole wall today.”

SO SPECIAL

After finding our sweet driver, we headed back to our hotel and took some time to de-thaw before going out on the hunt for some food and fun.

We ended up at Wangfujing Snack Street which is a tightly packed street full of all the food you never knew you wanted. Of course we had to try scorpion on a stick!

My personal favorite was these fried onion pancakes that are just so tasty. This is for sure a great spot to visit in Beijing and something you can’t find in Beijing!

We ended up at a beautiful park and climbed to the top to get an incredible view. While freezing cold at this time of the year, it is so fun to see all the Chinese New Year decorations and red laterns and lights everywhere. We then grabbed a didi back to our hotel and had a quiet night of dinner, tea and lots of chats.

It’s funny to me because people will often say, what’s it like to live in the worlds biggest city? And it just doesn’t feel that way to me. Living in the midst of it all, Shanghai oddly feels small because it’s so accessible and I have my routines and spots. Beijing definitely has a different vibe to it and is so much smaller than I remember!

Stay tuned for our final day in Beijing and more of my thoughts with Part III.

-Kaila