This feels like a big day. I finally got to Hebei! Now that the winter has loosened its grip, walking the Great Wall has become easier. Am tired now, and will write more tomorrow.

It snowed this morning, but only a little. When I packed the tent, there was a thick fog and behind me I could only see the first couple of watchtowers that I had passed on the way down from the Erlang mountains. Yesterday I took some great pictures showing lots […]

I have seen three geckos today. They ran away as soon as they saw me. Even saw a snake today. Quite small and dead. It looked like it died recently. A farmer came over as I packed my gear. He was particularly interested in the tent, so I showed him […]

Because of very unstable connection, just a quick one. Have walked 17 km in very hilly terrain. Flatter day tomorrow.

It was so warm last night that I kicked off my socks inside the sleeping bag. This morning I packed almost everything into the rucksack including the sleeping bag that goes at the bottom. Then I was ready to put on my socks, but couldn’t find them… Luckily I had […]

Although it isn’t that far from Datong to the place by the Great Wall where I returned, it took a long time to get there. The bus left at one o’clock but then it drove around in Datong almost an hour before actually heading for the destination. If I had […]

Here is another Wordle of this site. You can see a Wordle from October 2009 here. A wordle shows how often a word is used by it’s size in the illustration. Looks like “Great” and “Wall” have been caught up by “Chinese”, “today” and “time”.

The big event of the day started after only a few hundred metres of leaving the camp site. I met a Chinese family that were celebrating those that had passed away. Having a celebration for this reason may sound a bit strange to our western ears, but I can’t find […]

(Written late because the mobile connectivity was unstable) Thanks brother Jon for changing month in the picture gallery! The day started off as I feared with deep canyons. After a few kilometres the Great Wall changed direction, lining up for a different group of mountains. I was double lucky because […]

Got little sleep last night. It was colder than expected and I had eaten far too little. Today I stopped at a village by a road before the Great Wall took off north-eastwards towards the mountains. I struck lucky and got to a place with a shop and a makeshift […]