[briana]

I went up Simatai on March 12. I had planned on going to the village near the end of the ridge to climb up the forbidden portion of the wall. However, as I drove to the Simatai parking lot, I noticed that the streams were fully iced over. This ended my plans of spending the night in the fairy tower. I thought it would be verrry cold at night. However, it turned out that the weather was beautiful at the top, near 55 f. There were very few people on the wall around noon. More started trickling in later but it never became crowded.

There was a guard at the last tower. Actually he was at tower 9 and followed me, and my trusty tout, to the end of the legal area. He had nothing else to do since there were so few people there.

He was 19 years old and would have taken a bribe to let me go through. He was a nice boy and was very shy. Turned beet red when I took his pic. Even if he had not allowed me through had I wanted to go, my loyal tout said she had been to the fairy tower 17 times and offered to take me via a trail off the wall. I was not able to go though due to time constraints.

By the way, I intentionally paid full asking price, 150yuan, to my "guide" as she took many pics of me. I saw the same book at the airport for 60.

Finally, the ridge there is amazing. However, I've never been to any other portion of the wall to compare. The slope up to the wall is incredible.