Erik booked the Great Wall hiking tour three months ago at home in Canada. Now that he is in China for a one month holiday with his girlfriend Martine, he is going to realize his plot in Beijing.

We started from the hotel at 8 am on October 5th.  We made a half an hour trip in the Olympic Park before we drove to Gubeikou . The Canadian youngsters were in high spirits on the way, asking questions about everything in China. The moment they set their feet on the Wall, they were busy posing and taking photos. It was such a clear sunny day with colorful vegetation --- a typical golden autumn day in Beijing.

After walking along for about 15 minutes, Erik stopped all of a sudden and knelt down in front of his girl friend. Martine was totally unprepared. When she realized Erik was offering a diamond ring to her, she was deeply moved. Is there any other better place to pop the question? As solid as the Wall! As long as the Wall! The young lover hugged and kissed……

After two hours’ hiking, we stopped at the highest watchtower and started to make picnic lunch. Self-heated noodles with pickled vegetable and sausage, and some fresh apples. It was delicious!

As we continued our journey and walked off the Wall, three tourists shouted to us from above. It was clear they had lost their way on the Wall. We told them to follow us down in the valley since next section of the Wall was closed by the army. For the next one hour and a half, Erik and Martine had new friends to talk and make jokes. They were actually American and Korean postgraduates studying in Qinghua University and now they were going to Jinshanling for camping. When we said goodbye to them, they were very grateful and asked the name of our company. “Great Wall Hiking” they repeated loudly.

It fell dark already when we arrived at the restaurant. Erik and Martine were still active offering French lessons on the dining table. After meal we climbed onto the Wall again and they spent the night with an American couple on the second storey of a watch tower. The temperature had dropped dramatically but Erik and Martine said they were already used to cold since they were from Canada.

Next morning we enjoyed the sunrise together with the breakfast. Then we continued our hiking at Jinshanling. Erik took many photos with his I PHONE 4 and proudly showed us the panorama pictures he made on the spot.

“Beautiful Wall! Beautiful day!”

“ We will share the photos with everyone on our traveblog.”