On my first full day in China, courtesy of my jet lag I woke up around 4:30 in the morning but, not wanting to be a rude neighbor, I stayed in bed until about 6 before heading downstairs to the common area. Lucky that I did because when I got there I met a very nice Canadian couple Carolann and Macrae who quit their jobs to travel the world as well!

We started talking about our plans for the day and, while we both wanted to see the Great Wall of China, we were up in the air about going with the tour that the hostel offered or braving it and going on our own. We wanted to visit a section known as Mutianyu because it was much less touristy and crowded than the Badling area. However Mutianyu is a farther trip so it made getting there a bit trickier.

With our powers and courage combined we decided to go for it and, using pieces of information we’d seen on the internet, started off on what turned out to be one crazy adventure.

Oddly enough there is so much written in English here that navigating the subway was fairly easy and we quickly found our way to the bus station. We found our bus and got in the very long but quick moving line (after a random woman came up to us and tried to convince us we were going on the wrong bus) and began the 1.5 hour journey to our next stop.

Or at least it was supposed to a 1.5 hour journey.

About an hour in a man got on the bus and started telling us we needed to get off. We knew it wasn’t our stop but when someone is telling you you need to get off at this particular stop for the Mutianyu portion of the Great Wall you pause for a moment. Then a young Chinese woman started talking to him and after lots of back and forth she told us we should get of the bus with her and her friend.

We did and of course it wasn’t where we wanted to be but we thankfully had a Chinese speaking advocate. The men who got on the bus wanted us to disembark there so they could get us to take their taxis to the Great Wall. Our new Chinese friend fought with the drivers for quite some time and it got pretty heated at moments (I don’t know any Chinese but there were definitely some swear words being thrown around).

Apparently the drivers told her that because of a large event that was happening the taxis weren’t leaving the city. After talking with the drivers our Chinese friend told us she suspected this wasn’t true at all.

We were going to just wait for the next bus to come along and continue on our intended route but after much yelling and bargaining she got them to agree to take us to the entrance of the wall for 20 RMB each or about $3.20 USD. The taxi driver was NOT pleased and apparently kept telling our Chinese friends that they were hurting the Chinese economy for not paying more (and for not letting them take advantage of us). However we on the other hand greatly appreciated it.

When we got to the entrance we bought our tickets (again with our new friends’ help), took pictures with our Chinese buddies and bid them adieu, and started toward the wall.

But first we HAD to eat something.

All three of us had failed to really have breakfast in our haste to get going. We found a place that had delicious looking dumpling pictures on the outside and ventured in.

Here’s where the trouble started.

Deciding we wanted to get some dumplings and a bowl of beef and noodle soup to share, we tried to communicate with the waitress as to how many dumplings you got for the two different prices listed on the menu. We kept miming with our hands how many we wanted. It was a bit of a disaster but we thought we had it right in the end.

We believed you got 1 dumpling for 10 RMB and 3 for 30 RMB. So we asked for 1 order of a pork and scallion dumpling for 30 RMB (so we’d get 3 of those dumplings) and 1 order of another kind of dumpling with shrimp for 30 RMB (again so we’d get 3 dumplings).

Not even close.

We ended up ordering 60 dumplings. That’s right…60. Each plate apparently had 10 dumplings on it and we ordered 3 PLATES OF EACH for a total of 6 plates. They had already made the dumplings by the time we figured out our mistake so there were no take backs. We’re pretty sure she knew we didn’t want all that food but hey more business for her from the dumb tourists so she put the order through anyway.

It was ridiculous. And we were all full after about a helping of the soup and 5 dumplings. But we weren’t going to waste them all so we got doggie bags to take the rest home. I think I’ll be eating dumplings for the next week.

However even though we made a huge mistake it still only cost us about $14 USD each for that mistake. And they let us take our nice chopsticks home. Could have been worse.

And let’s be honest…it was pretty hysterical.

We finally got on our way and started the walk to the foot of the Great Wall. We had opted not to take the shuttle bus up as we were three young people with three pairs of good legs and the day was young. It only took us about a half an hour to get to the place where you can either take a cable car to the top or walk up. We were feeling pretty good and again, we’re young so walk on!

Big mistake.

The stairs were abundant and steep. A stair master nightmare.

I guarantee you my ass is going to pay the price big time tomorrow. (Update: it did.)

We took frequent breaks since we were climbing an obscene amount of steps up a mountain in probably 80 degree weather. And smog. So much smog even all the way out there.

But alas we made it eventually and it was so worth it.

The views from the Great Wall were spectacular and pictures don’t do it justice (though to be fair they really never do).

We walked along a decent portion of the wall, stopping to take pictures of the scenery, each other, and try our hand at Great Wall selfies (and me failing miserably because I am just not selfie skilled).

The watch towers were a great place to take a break since they were so much cooler than outside on the main wall. Plus all three of us forgot to bring sunscreen so it was a nice break from the sun beating down on us.

There wasn’t anything on or near the wall we could find that had a bit about the history of the Great Wall. Which was unfortunate since our knowledge of that time period and the Huns extends to the Disney movie Mulan. I had “Be A Man” stuck in my head for the majority of my time there.

Going down the mountain was a lot easier and so much more pleasant than going up. We made it back down in record time before finding the bus that would take us to another bus that would take us to the subway that would take us to a second subway that would bring us home.

It was an absolutely exhausting, amazing, ridiculous, unreal day and I’m sure there will be many more like it to come in China. At least this time I had some amazing people to go with. Later when it’s just me will be the real test.

Have a funny story to tell that occurred thanks to a language barrier?