Miyun - Simatai and The Great Wall

Miyun

Starting out

Our first day of riding was a long slog out of Beijing. The smog never really decreased until we were  maybe 50km or so out and started to a see the slight outline of hills only a couple of kilometers away from us.

SIM cards in China are tricky to get hold of. After multiple attempts it was not until we left Beijing and found a China Mobile office in Miyun that we sorted something. Passport copied, photo taken and apparently the SIM card has to be returned before you leave. Hopefully they recycle it! (Whoops, this didn't happen for border crossing one, we will see what happens when we go back to South China).

Simatai

After a slow start in the morning trying to find something for breakfast, we headed off to explore the quieter back roads around Miyun Reservoir Lake and over to Simitai. 30 minutes in and Calvin accurately lined up a lone piece of scrap wood on the road and put a nail through his front tyre. Schwalbe Marathon tyres - ‘not-so-puncture-proof’. Two patches on and we were off again. The back roads were great.  Still super smooth, quiet and scenic, even if a little cloudy.

First puncture repair ever while cycle touring... Day 2 of China

We didn’t find our booked accommodation that night but instead were insisted to stay at some other random people’s place. They claimed they didn’t know the place we were showing them even though we found out later after some exploration that it was around the corner. Sure. Same price and slight upgrade on the room!

Simatai is a less known place to visit The Great Wall but apparently more spectacular and scenic than at Badaling. We agree. Even though we haven’t been to Badaling the section of wall in Simatai is set in steep rocky hill country and they have tried to maintain the wall closely to its original state. It was made all the more authentic as we only saw two other European tourists and a handful of other Chinese tourists, and it was shrouded in misty and snowy surrounds. Rad.

The two nights we stayed dinner was served by our hosts and they watched us with great interest as we ate it very cumbersomely. Meal 1: two dishes, Meal 2: four dishes. It was delicious and we usually over ate. Meal 2 was impossible to finish. A third night may have caused exploding stomachs.