adventures in a mountain resort – commune by the great wall near beijing

This weekend has been the most adventurous by far here in China – we spent it in fresh (clean!) air at the Commune by the Great Wall (see another post about the cool hotel itself here) with multiple hikes up and down the mountains – and most fun of all was the trekking by the real Great Wall of China – instead of those horribly crowded, restored tourist attractions (which by the way we were able to observe from our private section of the wall since the resort was located between two of the official sites…).

One of the first things this family did was to head off for a little swim – and we enjoyed a little snack or two by the poolside also. It seemed that the weather was pretty cool for the Chinese people (25c/76F by the day, dropping to 13c/56F at night), but we thought it was the perfect for hiking, with fresh crispness of autumn at nightfall…

The pool area wasn’t exactly crowded, but it gorgeous it was for sure – located by the mountain side and with the colourful foliage starting to show in the surrounding trees…