During the summer of 2002 I flew to Beijing to meet up with Michael, Angie and G who were flying in from Singapore.
These particular photos highlight a ~7 mile trek along the Great Wall of China between Simatai and Jinshanling. Simatai is a 3 hour drive outside of Beijing so we hired a driver for the day (for only about $100USD) to drop us at this site. He then met us at the end of the day in Jinshanling. Thank goodness for cell phones and broken English!
The hike on the Great Wall still remains a life-highlight for me...totally AMAZING!
Because of the distance from major tourist attractions this section of the Wall isn't very popular. Aside from a couple of guards and a few locals from a small Mongolian Village (trying to sell us souvenirs) the only other tourists we encountered were a couple from Canada. We pretty much had the Wall to ourselves that entire day.
The last few photos in this set are some of the shots I took at one of the factories we toured (in Mainland China North of Hong Kong) where McDonald's Happy Meal Toys are made. I had no idea those little pieces of plastic were hand painted to the extent shown in my photos!
Note the oxygen masks worn by the workers...this factory was rated as an 'A' , top ranked facility, because they offered luxuries like oxygen and ventilation to their workers. In other words jobs at this facility are highly sought after.
Click here to see the rest of my Great Wall and Happy Meal Toy Factory photos.
