The Great Wall

Yesterday (Saturday) was the first clear day in Beijing. I haven't seen blue sky since I arrived, but today I actually saw clouds and blue.....I was excited!

Since it poured on Friday, we postponed our excursion to see the Great Wall. It was a good plan because of the weather...but thousands of Chinese also had the same idea--which caused some problems during the day...

We went to Badaling, which is approximately 50 miles from Beijing and the most visited section of the Great Wall. The portion of the wall running through this area was built during the Ming Dynasty. There was also a military outpost here reflecting the location's strategic importance--it is located in a major pass through the mountains into Beijing. This section of the wall has undergone heavy restoration, and in 1957 it was the first section of the wall to open to tourists. It was the section visited by Richard Nixon in 1972.

The road leading from Beijing to this area was amazing....four lane and very modern. I read online that this was the section used in the cycling events and the finish was at the wall. I know the road and finishing section very well...because we had to walk almost 2 kilometers (over 1 mile) just to get to the parking lot of the wall area. Because the weather was nice and it was a Saturday, hundreds of vehicles were trying to get to the area. It was total grid lock and the buses from the city just dumped us along the highway. So hundreds and hundreds of people were walking along the road.

I was with He (who-ah....or "June") the grad student who has been with me for this whole trip. She is wonderful....and has good English skills, and it has been a joy to be with her. She has been to the wall before and said it was "ok" to walk....so off we went. It took us about an hour to navigate to the wall area. The temperatures were around 90 degrees and no shade!

But once we arrived and I looked up at the massive wall snaking through the mountains the trek was well worth it. I thought the worst was over---but wrong again.

We climbed up on the wall at a section that went about 1/2 kilometer in one direction and stopped...so not many people were there. It was a great place to get good photographs and was the section where the picture below was taken. Notice how "fresh" and rested I looked! That soon would end.




After we took some photos we reversed our path and joined the masses who were doing what I call "the loop". It is a huge loop area of the wall that starts low and then CLIMBS at a 45 degree angle--honest!!!--I was on "all fours" at one point. Once we reached the top of a section, the wall then plunges back down to the level you were at before....like little mountain peaks and valleys. Most of the ups and downs were steps. Steps are ok for me....but these are not normal steps--but rather BIG steps with a rise of about 20 inches. Remember I have short little legs! So I would put one foot up and then drag my other foot up....only to repeat this about 50 times for one "up" section. Then of course is the "down"...big steps heading back downwards.




As I climbed up and down, I kept thinking of "Old Baldy" at the camp in Michigan where the Wakonse group gathers each year. For those of you that know that monster sand dune, Imagine going up it--and back down again about 30-50 times! Oh yeah...also add the heat (92 degrees with high humidity) and the humanity.....thousands of people! The picture below shows our "route" and also me with two girls. Since I was the only "crazy" westerner to be on this route, I again achieved "rock star" status. Everyone wanted a picture with me. I had June take this photo just to document one of at least 25 photos unknown people took with me. June thought it was pretty funny.....





I huffed and puffed up and down for the next three hours. We finally made the top tower and stopped to rest. It was at this point that I realized that we must walk through a small narrow slit in the wall to get through the watchtower and on to the next section of the wall. Not too bad...but it was human gridlock. Hundreds of people were trying to squeeze through that little slit in the rock. Fortunately a policeman appeared and started tossing people around and the group quickly became somewhat orderly.




I also realized at this point that the high section was very, very crowded--not because everyone had climbed the wall--but rather used a cable car that ran up the other side. In fact, it was at this point that I first saw any Westerners....and they all rode the cable car up! Lazy sots!!!



Well, we managed to get up and down....and on a bus back to Beijing by 2:30pm. The photo below is my "after" photo....at the bottom. If you look carefully in the upper left corner of this photo, you can see one of the high towers and the mass of humanity there.




I was back in my room at 4pm...and I hardly had the energy to peel my sweaty-stinking clothes off my aching body. A shower and a quick snooze made me feel like a human being again.

So....was it worth it! Definitely YES! It was an awesome experience. The wall is magnificent and something that everyone should see. Would I do it again.....well,I would love to go back.......but not do the major loop trek. I also would love to see some of the other sections around Beijing and throughout China. At one point --just looking at the wall---thinking about the history of this site brought tears to my eyes. I am not one to get misty-eyed very often--but it happened here. Pretty cool.............