The Great Wall is Pretty Great

Glen and Bon promoting Peace

       My brother Glen and I don’t agree on everything, but on this point, there is no contest: Seeing the Great Wall is a no brainer. I can’t imagine anyone going to Beijing and not making the extra effort to get out of town and see it. Personally, after about 3 days in any city I start hankering for wide open spaces, mountains with hiking trails and fewer people!. So I contemplate exploring a less traveled section of the GW. This translates into a section farther away from the city, requiring a longer drive (or bus ride - nobody rents cars in China)
        Nothing is easy. There are so many options. Google “Great Wall Tours” and you’ll see what I mean!. Badaling , Mutianyu, Simitai; full day, ½ day, combination GW/Summer Palace Tour; Hotel pickup sounds great, but if you are the first one on board you get to spend considerable time schlepping around picking up all of the other guests! The Jinshanling options sound good and the price is “reasonable”. We are picked up at 7am and predictably, we’re among the “early arrivals”. On the bright side we get a bus tour of Beijing out of it. (not a very great bus tour, but trying to accentuate the positive)

      We arrive at a second departure point at which we board another bus. Our group has grown to about 30 by this time and incredibly, the bus seats were apparently designed with very tiny persons in mind. There is far less knee room in this bus seat than in any economy class airplane seat I have ever occupied! My knees are compressed against the seat in front of me.

It was quite steep!

Our tour guide joins us at this point and off handedly mentions that in just two hours we will arrive at Jinshanling and begin our hike of the steepest section of the GW. Glen’s expression is predictable. Big eye roll and “just as I expected” look. We had debated whether it would be worth the travel time to see a less touristed part of the Wall. Now we both consider jumping ship! We had already been en route for about 1 ½ hrs; guess the advertised travel timeof 2 hrs starts now! AARRGGHH. I pull a couple of bottles of  Tsingdao beer out of my backpack and soon we are feeling slightly more mellow about the situation.
       Some of the folks on the sardine bus turn out to be pretty interesting. There’s the Tasmanian group occupying the back seats (4 gents and 1 gal, all returning from a wedding in Xian, home of the famousTerra Cotta Warriors);  Adrian sits across the aisle.  He's a 27 year old American on a long weekend from his English teaching job in Korea and as we say in Maine,  "he's a real "sweethaht"

Adrian, Bataar (my  Mongolian friend) and me;
a well restored section of the Jinshanling Wall

One thing that I enjoy about getting out of the city and covering some ground is just seeing the lay of the land. It takes some time to escape the massive metropolis of Beijing, miles and miles of new high rise buildings, shrouded in fog and pollution and pulsing with people!

As we near our destination and find ourselves surrounded by tree covered slopes, we catch glimpses of the Wall here and there in the distance.  When we finally arrive at the Jinshanling entrance and see the Wall close up, looming over us, looking every bit of its legend, any irritation resulting from travel hassles completely evaporates.

Wow! In fact, lots of “wows”! We gape and gawk and express amazement. Not every “destination” delivers on its mystique. This one does. I am somewhat of an easy critic. Not so my baby brother Glen. But he too is awestruck. And for the next 4 hours we hike and explore and wish that we had more time at this magical place.

We take more photographs here than in any other part of China (even Shanghai) Each turn around a bend or arrival at the top or bottom of a slope presents another spectacular National geographic worthy panorama of ancient architecture and construction. The Wall winds back and forth snake like along the ridgelines. I can imagine lighted torches at the WatchTowers at each high point and the sentries who stood watch.

I can  imagine the laborers who spent their lives assembling this monumental stonework I think about this as we scale some very steep sections. I also think about how sore my thighs will be in the morning as my heart thumps loudly in my chest.

Me, Adrian and my Mongolian friend...

Mongolian vendors are everywhere. They follow us. We had been “warned”: “Just keep walking, but I can’t help myself. I strart talking to one of them and have a shadow for the rest of the hike. I don’t mind; of course he wants o sell something, but it’s an opportunity to connect. And I have never met a Mongolian before! He is very sweet and helpful, offering to give me a hand on some of the treacherous parts and guiding us around obstacles. Much of this part of the Wall has not been restored, so you do have to tread carefully. 

That's me and Adrian..on a pretty ragged part of the Wall

 Adrian tags along with us. What a nice kid. I find it cool that he seems to want to chat with a couple of old duffers. Perhaps it’s nice to connect with people from back home. Anyway, he is good company and seems suitably impressed that the duffers are in pretty good shape for this hike. “Nothing like Kilimanjaro”, I say, doing a little not so subtle name dropping! :)  Adrian responds with appropriate awe! 

Me at Kili - a while back..sheesh what a name-dropper..

We reach the turn around. A couple of the Tasmanians are there too. Crazy people those Tasmanians! One guy has done the walk wearing flip flops, on purpose it seems. After some good natured banter with the Tasmanians and a purchase from my trusty Mongolian side-kick, we turn back, regretfully. 

Crazy Tasmanian on a short-cut; resting his flip-flopped feet!

The wall beckons. I would love to have a backpack with a tent and a few days provisions and just keep going. But I am lucky to have seen even this short section of this incredible structure.

Backtracking on a hike is so inferior to doing a loop! And pondering steep sections in reverse is daunting. But the views are still outstanding and the time flies by.
Half way back, Glen encounters a kindred spirit. The picture says it all: 

Iron Maiden fans stand out anywhere in the world.

You would have thought they were long lost brothers! 


Suddenly we are back at our starting point, back on the gondola that had lifted us up to the wall to save time, and back on the bus.

Arriving in Beijing, we ditch the bus, bypassing the long drop-off session. Glen, Adrian and I arrange to meet up in an “expat” part of town for the evening. And that’s a story for another blog post. For now, we are suitably exhausted and energized by experiencing a true wonder of the world.

Celebrating the Wall