Earth Day clean up hike at the Jiankou Great Wall, 2017/4/23
24 photos from our 2017 Earth Day clean up hike and pizza feast at the Jiankou Great Wall.

Earth Day is an annual event, now worldwide, that aims to raise awareness of environmental issues.
We’ve done a clean up hike for Earth Day every year since 2009, heading out to hiking trails that have been somewhat spoiled by a buildup of trash and packing out loads of litter for disposal in a more appropriate location.
This year we teamed up again with Gung Ho! Pizza to make our ninth annual Earth Day clean up hike part of the Beijing Earth Day Festival.
We found less rubbish on the wall compared to last year, and that meant our clean up crew was able to get pretty much 100% of it, leaving the Great Wall clean and green again.
While there was less rubbish overall, a few spots were a big mess – with plastic bottles, cans, tissues, cigarette butts, and plastic wrappers left all over the place.
A big thanks to everyone who came out to help! Part of the reward for spending time cleaning up after other people was a feast of pizza at the Gung Ho! Hut in the village at Jiankou. Thanks, Gung Ho!

Hiking up to the Great Wall.

Great Wall atop the green hills.

In the forest.

Local rep Mr He is marking the trail.

Almost up at the Great Wall.

Filling up the bags.

On a steeper trail through the forest.

Looking back to a tower.

We hiked down this rock face.

A little bit tricky.

Coming around the corner and up on to the wall.

Clear skies and long views.

Taking a rest on the wall.

We hiked on towards the Chinese Knot part of the wall.

The wall here is in pretty good condition, and it’s even better when clear of rubbish..

Picking out some bottles and wrappers.

The wall here is almost covered in bushes.

Approaching the steep section that leads up to the Chinese Knot.

Cleaning up at the foot of the wall.

We took a break here before hiking down to the village.

The clean up crew.

At the Gung Ho! Hut for the pizza.

The pizza oven.

We cleaned up the pizza as well