Ep 42 - The Great Wall of China, a wild walking tour in 4K - Jiankou to Mutianyu скачать в хорошем качестве

Ep 42 - The Great Wall of China, a wild walking tour in 4K - Jiankou to Mutianyu

Here we scramble up to a “wild”, remote, non-restored, stretch of the Great Wall of China near Jiankou. We walk on top of this breathtaking wonder of the world for about ~10 kilometres to Mutianyu, where we finish with a unique exit off a restored and heavily visited section of the Great Wall. The Jiankou section of the wall ribbons over the top of jagged mountains for 20km. The "wild wall", as this is called, is actually the world’s most expansive open-air museum. When tourists come to Beijing, they head by busload to the wall’s most famous restored outposts. Few of them come here, where we only met one other person, and their guide, before reaching the restored section. The Great Wall of China, which winds for over 20,000 km across the north of the country, is one of humanity’s most renowned creations. It is listed as one of the “new” Seven Wonders of the World alongside the Taj Mahal and the Colosseum. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. Snaking across northern China, from Manchuria to the Gobi Desert to the Yellow Sea, the Great Wall is vast. Its history is equally epic: it was built over more than 2,000 years, from the 3rd Century BC up to the 17th Century AD, by 16 different dynasties. The longest and most famous contiguous section belongs to the Ming dynasty, who built the wall from 1368 to 1644, including the Jiankou section which we are thrilled to explore, and share, here. The Jiankou section of wall is located just 100km north of Beijing. But it is completely different from its better-known neighbours, like Badaling or Mutianyu. There is no souvenir shop or Starbucks, no cable car or gondola. No one is waiting to sell you tickets. No one is there to make your visit easier, and a red sign in Chinese near the start of the trail simply states "No Tourists". To access this section of the wall you must hike up a few hundred meters of vertical to reach the mountain ridge. Built in the 1400s to early 1600s, this section was left untouched for centuries. The lack of restoration work on the wall here makes it picturesque, but dangerous. Every year one or two people die hiking on this part of the wall. Once we transition onto the restored, famous, and heavily visited Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, we see this marvel in a reconstruction of it's ancient splendour. This section features souvenir shops, a cable car, and even a go-cart ride down a slide. Obviously we could not say no to this! Here are some key moments: 0:44 – Starting the hike up to the Great Wall from Jiankou 1:08 – Cute small fluffy goats 3:00 – First good view of the Great Wall on the high ridge-line in the distance 7:38 – The last steep steps before gaining the ridge 10:56 – A convenient ladder to scale a small breach in the Great Wall 11:28 – The first view inside a Great Wall guard tower, built during the Ming dynasty 13:55 – 2 minutes of continuous and surreal ancient splendour here 17:12 – Scenic rooftop view 23:15 – Another beautiful Great Wall guard tower 29:37 – The next 2 kilometres are steep, unstable, remote, and almost never visited. 31:18 – Wall merging seamlessly into spectacular cliff 34:15 – The steepest top part without stairs. The wide angle lens does not show it fully, but good footwear is very desirable here. Holding the sides for support risks knocking the parapets over, or dislodging bricks from this incredible ancient museum! 39:50 – Exploring a rarely visited Ming dynasty Great Wall barracks 47:32 – Reaching the most remote part of the heavily visited Mutianyu section of the Great Wall 52:09 – Tourists! We only encountered one other person with their guide before reaching the restored section. 55:06 – After a short required wall bypass section, it was time to storm the Great Wall! 55:44 – Great Wall guard tower, with Coke, Chinese brand Pringles, and tourist trinkets for sale! 58:12 – The white rock pile formation up on the hill reads “Be Loyal to Chairman Mao” in Chinese 1:05:36 – The gondola up and down the tourist driven Mutianyu section of the Great Wall 1:11:40 – A very old small cannon 1:11:53 – In the 1580s a general added these lotus-shaped arrow holes to the Wall, in a reference to the Buddhist blessing for peace 1:15:11 – Furry fat guard on the Great Wall 1:15:56 – All kinds of tourist trinkets. The local acronym for nearby Beijing, seen on the T-shirt, is simply BJ 1:16:06 – Enjoying the expeditious way back down off the wall in the tourist driven Mutianyu section! If you enjoyed this please consider hitting the like button and subscribing. This helps the channel get noticed, so that others get a chance to see it, and may just surprise you with some interesting new videos. 100% of the ad revenue that this channel generates is donated to charities working to conserve the amazing planet that this channel explores. Thank you!