The Great Wall of China

Now I can say that I have walked on The Great Wall of China. Not nearly so extensive and extreme a walk like El Camino de Santiago de Compestela - but a very significant experience just the same. China was a mixed experience. I have to say it is one of the great tragedies of humanity that they decided to put The Great Wall of China in China. Anywhere else and it would be a really neat experience but it is hard to say that the wall is worth the hassle of putting up with Beijing - a city that just does not work. I won't go into a lot of detail about Beijing, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven except in my journal. They were pleasant sites but the agony of getting to them detracted a lot from our enjoyment of them.

But the wall.

We stopped off at the Beijing Olympic site and the Ming Tombs on the way to Jinshanling - about 2 hours driving from Beijing. Jinshanling is relatively lesser known than the more popular Badaling site for walking the wall - it's more remote but you can get even more remote still if you want. Our wall group included me, a couple from San Diego and Tommy the bi-lingual guide. In Jinshanling we shared tea with a family that was introduced to us simply as "local farmer." Following tea "local farmer" took us up a path and then some steps that brought us up onto the Great Wall. From here we hiked for about 2 or 3 kilometers to a watchtower and we waited here until sunset taking pictures and marveling at the mountains and the stretches of the wall disappearing and reappearing to the horizon both east and west.

After the sun went down "local farmer" took us back to his place for one of those meals of semi-identifiable edibles - and much more than we needed. A few others of the local people joined in. There was an introduction to "Chinese Wine" - throat burner - 46% alcohol. The laughing, talking, drinking and singing crossed the languages. "Local Farmer Wife" showed up after dinner to offer us some souvenirs and books to purchase. I bought a coffee-table book of local pictures of the wall because I felt she deserved more than whatever the tour company was offering for her hospitality and food.

After dark "local farmer" took us back up the wall by another path to another watchtower where the six of us spent the night. The stars were out but I could see a cloud bank coming in from the west so I opted to sleep inside the tower with the guide and "local farmer" while the Americans slept out on the wall. Surprisingly, from this tower you still here traffic from the freeway about 10 km away and there was some sort of party going on at a hotel back in Jinshanling about 3 km away but all these noises were gone by 10:00 PM and I had a great night's sleep. I SLEPT ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA - WOW.

In the morning we were up at about 5:45 - much to the guide's and "local farmer's" dismay. They said they were used to groups that sleep til about 8 or 9 in the morning but we seemed too "gung-ho." The cloud bank and mist had settled in so there was no sunrise but jeese-louise I was waking up on The Great Wall of China. And that's not all - the American woman manages a Starbucks in San Diego and she had brought along a package of their new "Via" instant coffee product. I walked on The Great Wall of China - I slept on the Great Wall of China - I had Starbucks coffee on The Great Wall of China.

Everyone else were faster hikers than me. This happened in Spain also. What I get from my slow way of walking is that everybody is on ahead and I get to enjoy the walk by myself. For much of our morning walk I was all alone on The Great Wall of China. Often I would realize that I was the only human visible to myself and this was on one of the greatest human accomplishments of history. I had The Great Wall of China all to myself. The wall went up and down over the mountains and I went up and down over the wall - sometimes a very well restored and maintained structure and sometimes a crumbling pile of bricks and sandy mortar or even just remaining packed clay. It is fitting that some parts of the wall are lost to time because, after all, the thing is really, really old. Nothing lasts forever.

We hiked from 7:00 - 11:00 and covered about 10 km to the village of Simitai. We shared another over-supplied lunch of semi-identifiable edibles and then a van ride back to Beijing. There is a bit of story about why Anne was not on this walk but I'll let her tell that.

Scott