The Great Wall

Today we had an early start. The tour bus picked us up at 6:50am at our hostel. After picking a few others up around Beijing we set out on our trip to the Great Wall. The drive to our drop off point was meant to be around 3 hours, but as the roads were so icy we drove slow and it took nearly 4.5 hours. We saw the results of a few trucks that had slid off the road and even saw an accident happen in front of us. A guy in a mini-mini van honked as he passed us on the freeway and when he was about 150 metres in front of us he started to slide across the road. He slid right then over corrected and slid left, sliding into the median strip, bounced, and the van flipped on its side and finished in the middle of the road. Of course we drove around it and kept going. As we passed the driver was trying to climb out, I guess he was OK.

Arriving at Jinshanling (a small village) in one piece we unloaded and set out on a 30 minute walk to the Great Wall. We were led by some local women from Jinshanling and a few old guys with snow shovels. The hike was up a single trail through a valley covered in fresh snow. Absolutely beautiful. To get on to the wall we had to pay 30 Yuan each ($5 AU). We climbed some stairs and there we were on the Great Wall of China. The section of the wall we were on ran along the top of the mountains, mostly unrenovated. The view was amazing and we took a heap of photos throughout the day. The 10K hike led us along the wall to Simatai, another small village along the wall. About 3 inches of snow covered the wall making it slow going at times. We climbed up stairs, down stairs, crawled up extremely steep stairs, slid down flatter sections, ascended towers, and fell on our butts only twice. Whoever said the Chinese were short were wrong as some of the steps are about 2 feet high. (Kel was at a major disadvantage here). The day could not have been better, we actually got some fresh air although the wind was a bit chilly at times. At a guess it had to be about -5 Celsius, not including the wind chill factor, but clear and sunny. Our new (already falling apart) down jackets served us well and we were actually hot while hiking. If we got lost we could have followed the trail of down feathers escaping from our crap jackets back to Jinshanling. It was too cold to stop for the picnic we had planned, instead settled for a (frozen) Snickers to keep us going. It was so cold that the water in the tube from our Camelbaks froze. We had to bend and crack it like a glow stick to get some flow. The hem of Kel's pants were frozen stiff and she couldn't roll them up.

We were surprised at the colour of the older sections of wall, it had a distinct reddish tinge not like the grey that you see in all the photos. The first part of our walk was renovated about 25 years ago with perfect steps. After about 2 kms the wall had not been renovated and we walked along and through collapsed sections, and divert off the wall at times to get past badly crumbling parts. For us this was the best part as it truly reflected the age of the Wall. It wouldn't be the safest hike at any time and the snow and ice certainly didn't help. We could see why so many people leave with injuries (or die) after hiking the Wall. Kel thought she would be one of these people after nearly being blown off the wall by the wind a couple of times.

The wall is about 3 metres wide with the 'castle-esque' type sides running all along. On the Mongols' side there are small rounded hatches every few metres. Probably to roll boulders down or pour hot oil on the attacking forces, or something barbaric like that. Certain sections of the wall were flat bricks even if the section was steep enough for stairs. (This was the sliding part). The watch towers we very regularly spaced, but closer together than we thought. The views from some of the towers are amazing. We really were in the middle of nowhere and thought 'Who the hell would want to climb these mountains just to invade a country?' Kel says if she was a Mongol she would have taken one look at the stairs and said "Hell no! I'm going home."

The 'friendly' village ladies from Jinshanling followed us for half of the journey and then their true motives were revealed. "You buy book, we farmers, very poor." We had been warned about this earlier and were told not to pay more than 30 Yuan for it. Her initial price was 520 Yuan!! All this for a coffee table book that had about 5 different languages but very little English. We said 'we can't read this, there is no English.' She then said 'Yes Engrish' and pointed to "Der Grosse Wall"-A paragraph written in German. We felt bad for them but didn't want the book, so we gave them 11 Yuan for some postcards that we didn't want either.

The final section of the wall near Simatai is newly renovated for the quick trip tourist. We reached a river where the wall stops and begins again on the other side. We wondered what type of contraption had been there originally to get across. We had to pay 5 Yuan to cross a suspension bridge (the only way to cross-What if we didn't have 10 Yuan? Hike back 10 kms to Jinshanling?). We hiked through 2 more watch towers and had the option to walk another kilometre to Simatai or (pay to) take the flying fox back over the river leaving us with a 2 minute walk. Only fools wouldn't take the flying fox at this point. So we did, bringing us to ponder after the fact how reliable the 'Made in China' caribiners are.

After a quick cup of tea we boarded the bus for the ride back to Beijing. After freezing all day on the wall we thawed and then roasted in the bus. Conditions were better and the trip back was a bit faster but still worrying after this morning's trip, especially in the dark. At the toilet break I asked the driver if he had ever slid out on the ice before. He replied 'This is my first time driving on ice.' Thankfully we didn't know this on the outbound journey. He was a young guy with a thumping stereo in the bus. The radio was tuned to 'Hits FM, the international station' playing a mix of Chinese pop, and 'today's western' hits, which apparently include Justin Timberlake, Nelly, Alicia Keyes, Dannii Minogue (Kylie's sister, for all you Yankees), Hanson (Mmm Bop), Wilson Phillips and Debbie Gibson.

We pretty much went straight to bed when we got back.

What a fantastic experience!

-N