Trekking on The Great Wall of China - Day 5

Much of the wall that we covered today was in ruins and there was encouragement and support among the trekkers as we climbed.

After reaching the end of today’s trek we sat down in one of the wall’s towers and had lunch, before moving down the mountainside and back into our bus to drive to our next destination, by the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, where we plan to trek tomorrow.

Trekking family - Thomas, Kevin, and Anton (L to R)

Everyone on our trekking adventure brings something great to it. Two members of our spirited team are married couple Jo and Rob.

Jo, who is 55 years old and lives in Beaconsfield in Western Australia, has been teaching pre-primary students for 35 years. She’s brought the subject of moon bears into the classroom–teaching her students all about the sentient and intelligent bears who find freedom and joy at Animals Asia’s two sanctuaries in China and Vietnam.

A supporter for twelve years, Jo was introduced to Animals Asia through a flier that she came across, and was inspired to do something to help the bears. Among her many contributions to the organization is having devoted her fiftieth birthday party to Animals Asia. The landmark celebration was a fun-filled fundraiser for AAF.

Jo and Rob on the Great Wall

Jo signed on for the trek because she’s, “…always wanted to see the bears”. She also, “…loved the thought of walking the wall”. She saw the information about the trip at the Animals Asia website and thought, “I’m doing it.” Her husband Rob decided to join her. Rob, 45 years old and a pharmacist, is a strong supporter of Jo’s dedication to Animals Asia. Besides wanting to support Jo, he was attracted to the challenge of trekking on the Great Wall, and to fundraising to help the bears.

Read more about our trek at the Inspired Adventures blog.

Trekking on the Great Wall of China

Yesterday we drove out into the country from Beijing. We stopped along the way at the phenomenal Qing Tombs which hold most of the Qing Dynasty Emperors’ tombs. Then it was on to the wall for our first day of trekking. Everyone was delighted to be there. The bravest of the group was Julia, who showed great strength in completing the day’s journey.

Taking in the great views

Today we took in fantastic views as we walked along mostly unrestored areas of the magnificent Great Wall, and were lucky to have beautiful sunny weather. At lunch we talked about the bears who we are all looking forward to meeting at Animals Asia’s China Bear Rescue Center. A number of the trekkers sponsor bears at the sanctuary, including Glenn, who sponsors Snoopy.

Glenn is 48 years old and lives in Auckland, New Zealand. He’s been a supporter of Animals Asia for six years, volunteering for the organization locally. Professionally, Glenn has worked for an exporting company for four years. He first became involved with Animals Asia in response to an ad that he saw in a newspaper. After learning of the plight of the bears, he immediately wanted to help. Glenn is on the trek because he is always up for helping the bears by supporting Animals Asia and also because he wanted to see China for the first time. After being a supporter for so many years, he is very excited to meet the bears living at the sanctuary up close and in person.

Glenn at the Qing Tomb

We were happy to see Kerri’s little stuffed toy moon bear, Zi You make an appearance at the Temple of Heaven. The bear was a wonderful reminder of why we are all here, to help endangered moon bears who are the innocent victims of cruel bear bile farming. One of the creative ways that Kerri raised money for Animals Asia as part of the Challenge was through, “Bear Naked Wardrobe Sales”. Kerri, a professional organizer enlisted people to declutter their closets, then donate items they no longer wanted to be sold as part of her fundraising effort.

Led by our lovely guides, Kyle and John, after the Temple of Heaven we went shopping and had lunch before continuing on to two of Beijing’s greatest attractions, Tianmen Square and the Forbidden City. Julia Spencer, who has been an Animals Asia supporter
for six years and is so keen to help the bears, thought Tianmen Square was very powerful.

At our wonderful dinner, Kelly, an Animals Asia supporter for the past ten years, talked a bit about the online vegan store that she runs with her mother. Kelly and her mother also have opened the first farm animal sanctuary in South Australia. Kelly explains that supporting Animals Asia was her first ever experience with animal welfare. She and the rest of us are excited to begin our trek along the Great Wall of China, in support of the moon bears tomorrow!

It was just wonderful to meet the bears and some of the dogs and cats, and be guided through the sanctuary by Jill. We arrived on a health check day so we were able to get very close to one of the bears and give her a kiss and a hug. Although she was asleep, I’m sure she felt all the love.

It was great to be able to meet some of the staff as well and Dave Neale, who was on site so gave us an update on his work as well. After dinner, we saw the bears in bed just before we left, which was just magical.

No one wanted to leave but eventually we had to say goodbye to everyone. We were taken back to the hotel where we had farewell drinks in the bar. Back to London tomorrow.

Maren writes … “We had the morning and early afternoon at leisure in Lijiang today. We all went shopping in the beautiful old town and some of us also took advantage of the hotel spa to relax our tired muscles.

At mid afternoon it was off to the airport for our flight to Chengdu. We’re all very excited about our visit to the sanctuary tomorrow!!”

We finally arrived back in Lijiang just before 7pm. Our lovely guide Bruce found a restaurant in Lijiang for us, as most were craving some spicy or at least savoury food. After a walk back through the still busy streets of the picturesque old town some of us had a night cap in the bar, opposite which seems to be a favourite hangout sone of the local dogs!

Today, we set off about 8.15am. The rain made it more challenging than it would have been otherwise so most of us went down on our bums at some point.

After over eight-hours solid trekking we were met by the bus that would transfer us to Lake Logu. This was quite an emotional goodbye to the horses and horsemen and women who had been with us for five days. The head horsemen who looked after us so well, touchingly gave his horse bell to our challenge guide Stef.

As we trekked we’d caught stunning glimpses of the lake but close up it was, of course, much bigger and truly beautiful.

The hotel for tonight is very luxurious – a big contrast to what we have seen over the past few days.

But after that, the morning became significantly more challenging – all uphill and due to the altitude everyone was quite out of breath when we reached the village where we were picked up again by our truck.

We then had lunch with a local family, the plan was to eat outside but as it started to rain we moved to the first floor of a partly finished new building, which we reached by climbing a ladder!

After lunch we trekked for a further hour and a half before reaching our beautiful guesthouse in Labo Zhuangzi. A very traditional wooden house with a lovely friendly family of pigs in residence.

Today’s photos are of us having lunch, in our truck and having some cold beers at our guesthouse.

Although yesterday was a really tough day and the toughest physical challenge so far, we’re all glad we did it.

Today, we stopped in a village, where some of the trekkers went to visit the local school and others chose to befriend the local dogs. After a thirty-minute break we continued to today’s lunchspot. The view was absolutely stunning and the little rain we had was actually quite welcome.

We reached our destination for tonight at about 5pm and, compared to yesterday, our accommodation is also relatively luxurious with proper beds and even a shower.

The local dogs here are totally free range and look very happy and healthy, which we all said was a very pleasant surprise.

It was pretty scary at times with no real path, just a deep drop on one side and steep rise on the other. We all did amazingly well though, according to our fabulous guide Stef.

The views while we were trekking were absolutely stunning. When we had our lunch on a slightly wider mountain path, we all said how amazing it was to be up a mountain in such a remote part of China. Here is a picture of the path leading to the first tunnel that we went through to get to our lunch spot.