Boxing Day Great Wall hike at Jiankou and Mutianyu, 2015/12/26
Photos from our Boxing Day hike along the Great Wall from Jiankou to Mutianyu.
Every Christmas we do a fun Great Wall hike or two, and finish up with a feast and a dumpling-making competition.
The dumpling-making competition is a lot of fun, with prizes awarded in two categories: “Most Dumplings made in three minutes”, and “Best Dumpling” i.e. the most beautiful!
See below for our 2015 Boxing Day edition - shots of the snowy hills and Great Wall on the hike, and photos from the contest.

Hiking up to the Great Wall.

In the shady valleys there was still a lot of snow on the ground.

Taking a break on the way up to the wall.

Hiking on up. With the scenery all black and white, the red ribbons were easy to spot!

Getting closer to the Great Wall on the Jiankou side.

We continued up through the forest.

The view from the top - spectacular!

On top of the General’s Tower at Jiankou.

A view towards the “Ox-Horn” tower and on to Mutianyu.

Time to move on.

From here we hiked along the wall to Mutianyu.

The trail was rather icy, and we took it slow.

The Great Wall here climbs steeply to a high point known as the “Ox-Horn” turn.

The red ribbons on the tree mark the beginning of the park section at Mutianyu.

We hiked down from the Mutianyu Great Wall to finish the walk.

After lunch, we set up the dumpling-making competition.

The competition has begun!

Filling and wrapping the dumplings.

Time is running out.

Time for one last dumpling.

One more!

Almost done.

Tina is displaying the prizes.

Congratulations to the winner!

And the winner in the other category!