Hike! 2008 Great Wall trip

[greatwallforum]

Originally Posted by sophie

Bryan, your trip sounds great. It is too bad we won't be able to meet when we are China. I will be leaving in June. You will be arriving in August. I don't know if I will ever be able to return to China again after this trip. But if I do then maybe we will be there at the same time.

Thank you, Sophie. I am also sorry that we won't be able to meet this hear. I too hope we can meet at another date. In the meantime, it's good to know you here at the Great Wall Forum. Thanks for your contributions as always.

[greatwallforum]

I have done some research on the Garmin Colorado GPS receivers as compared to the GPSMap 60CSx and reached these conclusions.

Pros:

• The screen is larger and higher resolution
• The controls are simpler and more intuitive
• The control placement above the screen seems better for one-handed operation
• Slightly smaller
• Uses regular SD cards instead of Micro SD

Cons:

• Shorter battery life
• Slightly heavier
• Expensive!
• Some negative user feedback concerning accuracy and sensitivity

Beyond the pros and cons, I realized that the GPS receiver's biggest shortcoming for Great Wall usage is the lack of a good topographical map incuding the Great Wall. This limitation would apply to all Garmin GPS receivers. Therefore I have decided that the Garmin Colorado units don't have much to offer over the GPSMap 60CSx, and so for now I will not be getting one.

[greatwallforum]

I have stepped up my preparations and added Tai Chi training as well. The Tai Chi will add physical and mental conditioning including improved strength, flexibility, and balance. Here is an overview of my daily routine.

Morning: running
Late morning: listen to recorded Chinese language instruction while exercising on stepper
Afternoon: Tai Chi training
Evening: study written Chinese

I hope to be in good shape by the time I reach the Great Wall in a few months.

Here are some examples of what conditioning has done for me in the past.

• In 2004, I climbed from the bottom of the Badaling Great Wall to the top in 32 minutes.
• In 2005, I ran from the hotel to the base of the Simatai Great Wall and then climbed to tower 14 in under one hour.

[greatwallforum]

T minus 99 days and counting

[greatwallforum]

I have decided on a few more details of the trip. My wife and I will arrive in Shanghai on August 14. I will go to Beijing around August 20. I will stay in the Beijing Great Wall area until the end of September.

Upon first arriving in the Beijing area, I will go to Huairou and try some long section hikes. First I plan to begin at Qinglongxia, the eastern limit of the Great Wall in Huairou on the border with Miyun. I will trek from there to Jiankou via Hefangkou, Shentangyu, and Mutianyu. I will spend plenty of time exploring and taking photos in the Jiankou area. From the Beijing Knot at Jiankou I will then take the inner Wall route towards Moyashike, Lianyunling, Dazhenyu, Sanchakou, Huanghuacheng, Zhuangdaokou, Xishuiyu, Longquanyu, and beyond.

Next I will spend about a week to ten days in Miyun county (Bailingguan, Simatai, Jinshanling, Gubeikou). This is my favorite area of the Great Wall. I may try to cross over the Sky Bridge at Simatai if conditions are good. I also hope to explore the Wohushan area of Gubeikou and to the west from there.

There is a lot of Great Wall to explore in Huairou and I don't know if I will have time to pursue my plans in Yanqing county which include exploring both sides of Badaling. That might have to wait until a later trip.

[greatwallforum]

I've got 132 waypoints of the Great Wall throughout Beijing loaded onto my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx. I have been testing lithium batteries to get an idea of how long they last so I will know how many to bring. Along with the far superior life of the lithium batteries, and the fact that they tolerate cold temperatures well, they are far lighter than alkaline batteries. One AA alkaline is 23.7 grams and the lithium is 14.5 grams. There are two downsides. First, they are far more expensive, but it looks like the longer life makes up for the cost although I don't have exact figures yet. Second is a problem I have read about but not witnessed myself: at 1.78 volts, they are right at the power limit and the GPS sometimes won't work with them until they are used in a flashlight or something to bring the voltage down slightly. It only takes about a minute, and I doubt they lose much capacity in the process, though. Fortunately, I have not been able to reproduce this problem so maybe my receiver's voltage regulator is calibrated to a slightly higher voltage.

I got a 2GB SanDisk MicroSD card (only $10!) which will be plenty to hold maps and saved tracks.

It looks like no China topo GPS map will become available and I guess I will just have to get the basic Garmin world map.

[greatwallforum]

I purchased the Garmin world map. As expected, the detail on this map is not very impressive. However, since I have been adding the information that interests me the most (The Great Wall), and since it’s intended more for off-road use than for driving, it should be adequate.

I have been doing some real-world testing of my GPS receiver, a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. The tests and results are detailed in this thread. In general, I was very impressed with the performance of both the receiver and of Energizer Lithium disposable AA batteries.

[greatwallforum]

50 more days (a very short time) until I leave for my trip to China, which will last for 50 days (a very long time).

I have purchased a Canon Powershot SD770IS camera for this trip. These cameras are so small and light, and take such great outdoor photos, that I can’t justify carrying any larger or heavier camera.

These are the main features that I like about this camera.

• 10 megapixels
• Image stabilization
• Excellent battery life (about 800 photos per charge)
• Size: 86 X 54 X 20 mm (3.4 x 2.1 x 0.8 inches)
• Weight: 130 grams (4.6 ounces)

There are a lot of other features and qualities to like too.

I have been testing over the last couple of months to make sure that this camera is reliable and to get a better idea of the exact battery life in various modes of operation.

Along with the camera, I will bring one spare battery and five 8-gigabyte high-speed SD memory cards. This is enough for about 9000 full-resolution, full-quality images, although I will be using a lot of this memory for videos.

[Kim]

Along with the camera, I will bring one spare battery and five 8-gigabyte high-speed SD memory cards. This is enough for about 9000 full-resolution, full-quality images, although I will be using a lot of this memory for videos.

That's only 180 photos per day - seems very low

[greatwallforum]

It's now exactly one month before I leave and my plans are changing somewhat. Google Earth has added a vast amount of high-resolution area along the Great Wall and thereby many of my questions have been answered. So I am thinking about changing some of my destinations. However I won't make any major changes and I still plan to concentrate in Huairou and Miyun. A new goal I have added is to try to explore the Northern Qi Dynasty Great Wall in the Jinshanling / Simatai area.

I have found a possible place to stay, at least for part of the time — the Shentangyu hotel.

Originally Posted by Kim

That's only 180 photos per day - seems very low

I guess I won't be taking all my photos at the full 10 megapixel resolution.