Sauce Magnusson

Hello, here's my first post, transferred from the old Chutzpanim blog. 
I've been traveling lately in China, and we recently went to the Great Wall. There are many access points to the Great Wall nearby Beijing, the most famous of them being Badaling. The newest one to open is the Simatai access point, which has been closed for some time to remake the Gubei "Watertown."
When you enter the parking lot, there was a large visitor center where you must pay to enter the Gubei Water Town, which is a very beautiful (but alas another one of the Chinese recreated "old towns.") As of this date (End of June 2014), not many people have moved into the shops, so it is reminiscent of the Chinese ghost towns, where companies develop whole cities before anyone moves in. They still have some vendors and I got to see someone making caramelized sugar candies in the shapes of pigs, tigers, etc.  Also there was a Chinese opera going on in the city square, although it was beyond my appreciation.

Here's a nice door-knocker at the gate of the visitor center:

Here are some views of the water town (meaning there's a river running through it):

There's a lot of construction (basically the whole town is being completed at once, and people haven't moved in yet, other than a few small shops):

These will soon be bustling shops when everyone moves in.

Some of the beautiful canals in the Gubeikou Water town. Too bad they're modern remakes.

You can take a boat throughout Water town, and it docks near the access point to the Simatai great wall.

The damns above Gubeikou make some beautiful lakes.

Some nice signage lets people know they shouldn't be Chutzpanim ;P

Here's a view of one of the damns used to make the river going through the town:

Here's the ruins of a tower. It's kind of nice to see something that hasn't been remade in China, where the bigger tourist sites are often refurbished.

It's very steep at places! You can take a cable car to go to one of the higher towers, but walking down feels more dangerous since you could trip and roll for a couple hundred meters...

Here's more of water town (Gubei).

You can see where the wall is divided by one of the lakes

More of the wall.

Some extremely large cyprus trees can be seen at a distance.

They started building this section of the wall during the Ming dynasty (just before the last one, the Qing dynasty (Manchu), after the Yuan (Mongolian). They'll never finish the wall at this rate...

Here the wall hasn't been refurbished as much as in Badaling.

Another wide view of Gubei water town.

Some sections are quite flat.  It's nicer at Simatai than at Badaling since there aren't so many people.

You can see a top view of the Gubeikou Water Town above:

You can enter each tower and take some good snaps through the windows ;P

I noticed these pretty bricks every so often with some spiral designs.

There are some remnants of an older cable car that is no longer in function, near the top. I climbed down to take a look.

Here's one of the nice sights you'd never have at Badaling-- a causeway free of people.