Up on the Great Wall

Winding wall at Mutianyu

I have another blog post in the works, about leaving Chengdu and saying goodbye to my new friends there, but I’m having trouble putting that in perspective at this point.  So I’m skipping that for the moment to move on to what I did today:  visited the Great Wall.  Despite the fact that I specifically chose to route myself through Beijing in order to make this visit, it has been in doubt for the past several weeks.

Ever since I arrived in China, every single person I’ve spoken with has warned me about how crowded Beijing is, and also how incredibly crowded the Great Wall is.  They warned me about pickpockets, told me not to wear any jewelry,  and basically made it sound like an altogether unpleasant experience.  I’m not big on crowds (what do you expect from someone who grew up in small towns in Alaska and Montana), and I have been on the fence for at least two weeks as a result.  I have seen some pretty impressive things in the past month, especially the Grand Buddha and the DujiangyanIrrigation System, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be impressed by the Wall, and more importantly be oppressed by the crowds.  When I mentioned this to Liu Liu on Tuesday, she very wisely advised me to go.  She told me that it was possible I would be disappointed when I got there, but that I would regret it if I didn’t.  I’m so happy I listened to her, because what I experienced today was amazing.

First of all, it only took a little bit of searching to find that there is more than one option to visit the Great Wall.  The place that everyone says is really crowded is called Badaling, and it is about an hour’s drive from Beijing.  But there’s another place called Mutianyu that is only 90 minutes away.  That extra 30 minutes makes all the difference in the world.  I found a tour via my hotel that only went to that section, didn’t include an “authentic Chinese lunch” (I’ve had enough of those), and came back with only one stop at a “silk museum” (aka sales pitch).  While it was slightly overpriced compared to others, it was convenient and was exactly what I wanted so I booked it.

Do I look nervous?  I don't like heights!

We arrived at Mutianyu a little after noon and took a gondola ride up to the ride.  I’m not big on heights, but it was essential to not have to hike an hour just to get to the wall.  There was plenty of hiking to do once you got to the top.  We had about 90 minutes to hike around, and I set off to the left see how far up the hill I could get.  It was promised to have the best view, and I figured that all my hiking would prepare me just fine for this trek.  That didn’t exactly work out as I thought it would as this section was incredibly steep.  I had to break it up into 50 steps – every 50 steps I would stop and take a breather and then set off to the next one.  I didn’t make it up as far as I wanted to go, but I did make up ¾ of a visible hill (the top was my original goal).  If I didn’t have to get back to meet the group, I would have kept on going.  However, it would have been better if I had my hiking supplies from home (hat, camelback, hiking friends).

Steep stairs leading to the highest tower landing I made it to.  There were more!

Can you see how red my face is?  That was a tough hike!

At this tower, there was a woman there selling water, soda, snacks and postcards.  She somehow hikes these things up there every day.  One of my fellow tourists pointed out she must have some sort of shortcut, but there's no way she doesn't have to haul it up the portion of the hill right before the tower.  I can't imagine doing that every day, but it also made me think about how they got the materials to build the original wall up there to begin with.  The scope of that is just mind-blowing.  The entire wall is over 6000 kilometers, which is an awful lot of stone, brick and mortar to haul around with primitive technology.

On the way back down I had the gondola all to myself (no crowds, no lines, no sharing), and I almost overcame my fear of heights.  It was actually a fairly smooth ride down, and the views were gorgeous.  This area must be absolutely spectacular in the fall, as the trees turn all gold and red.  

On the gondola ride back down the mountain.

I'm so glad I didn't let myself be scared away from the Great Wall.  I will happily remember my time up there for the rest of my life.  

See all my Great Wall pictures on Flickr