Snow, sunset and Simatai

"To Simatai? Again? Isn't it snowing in Beijing?"

That was my mother on the phone from Calcutta.

I told her that the idea, in fact, was to capture the snow on the ramparts of the Great Wall. Simatai happens to be the steepest, highest (about 1,000 m above sea level) and arguably the most picturesque and least-frequented part of the Wall around Beijing. Built in 1368 and re-built in the mid-Ming Dynasty in the late 16th century, it is also one of the most ancient and unspoilt pieces of the great bulwark. Now was the time to see its virginal brilliance, before the snow melted.