a (long) tale of (so many) stairs

The air was clear, the day was fine, and luckily enough for us we had planned to do some outdoor activities. ^_^

My sister had gathered together a gaggle of friends, and we all met up at a train station and joined a line-up. Got to the front, and realized we didn't all need to be in the line-up. In true train station fashion, we then moved to another line-up, got through security. And joined yet another line-up for the platform.

I'm not exactly sure why, but Chinese train stations only allow passengers onto the platform about 2 minutes before the train is supposed to leave again.

Knowing this, the entire train station empties in a chaotic rush of stampeding suitcases as soon as the gates open.

We were headed up to Badaling, which is a popular place to climb the great wall, and the train didn't have assigned seating. They also oversell, since it is a short journey (just under an hour), so if you don't find a seat right away, you are doomed to stand the entire time. Or sit on your suitcase, should you have one.

We found some seats and I took a nap in the sunlight that fell through the train window. It was lovely.

Once at Badaling, we hurried with the crowd up the road to the ticket offices and bought entrance tickets. Decided against taking a ride up the cable car and figured we were young and strong and the sun was shining and we would just use our feet to get up the wall.

Oish.

Those feet were *well* used by the time the day was over. O_o  And we had even chosen a part of the wall that didn't have as many stairs as other popular sections of it. 

We climbed, and climbed, and stopped to take pictures and rest, then climbed some more....  Eventually our group got a little bit spread out, and we would gather in little groups along the handrails and wait for everyone to re-unite.

The day started out cold, but the sunshine was warm, and climbing at that altitude was warm work. By the time we'd been hiking for an hour or so, that big jacket was *off* and all of my sister's friends were worried I was a)insane b)going to catch my death of a cold.  Most of the time, I still had my sweater on, but every now and then, just a t-shirt folks.  It was a really nice day, ok? OK.

Going up was hard work. Coming back down was nigh on terrifying in some spots.

It was an amazing day.  And the cookies we brought along for a treat were good too.
^_^