Last Day on the Earth's Biggest Sidewalk

I spent my last day in China walking along the Great Wall. It really felt fitting: ancient, touristy, uneven, and littered.

At the suggestion of one of Josh's colleagues, an American who lived as an ex-pat in Beijing for four years, we hired a driver who, a few years ago, had taken her to a specific entrance at the "wild" part. There is one relatively short section of wall that has gondolas, buses, merchants, and crowds. We hoped to avoid that. So, Sunday morning, Jaiyin (a different colleague), Cyril (another colleague), and the driver picked us up in front of the apartment. We drove for about an hour and a half north (I think) of Beijing. The roads became narrower and the scenery more mountainous.

The driver and Jaiyin chatted in the car. We stopped at a homemade toll that some villagers had installed to collect money from tourists accessing this part. We paid twenty yuan each, got back in the car, and drove pretty much into someone's driveway. The driver explained to Jaiyin that he would meet us at the base of the developed part of the wall, and it would take us four to five hours to get there.

Jaiyin was very nervous that we wouldn't make it that far (she's not much of a hiker), so she kept checking in with the driver throughout our adventure. Somehow, China has cell reception everywhere.

We climbed up a steep trail outside of the village for a little over a half an hour. When we emerged from the trees, we could see watchtowers at peaks all over.

We arrived at a watchtower where a woman was waiting by a ladder. She charged us five yuan each to climb it.

Cyril, Jaiyin, and Josh at the first watchtower of our journey.

Jaiyin insisted we trade places:

Cyril, Kelly, and Josh at the first watch tower. 

The Air Quality Index was in the eighties in Beijing, and we hoped it would clear up outside of the city. But, it was still a little hazy, which was disappointing. I bet you could see much farther on a clear day. The wall, of course, extended in two directions. We had to ask the ladder guard lady which way to go. Here is a picture of the way we could not go. You can't see it that well in this picture, but the wall extends on the ridges for quite a ways: 

We set out in (hopefully) the right direction.

Looking back at the first watchtower. 

The "wild" part of the wall has not been maintained. Bricks have fallen, trees and bushes grow all through it. Cyril told us that in some parts, villagers over the years had taken some of the bricks for their own projects. He and Jaiyin also estimated (none of us had done proper research) that the wall had been built in the 800s CE, so we were crawling around on 1200 year old stones. (And the bricks were carved stones, which is really impossible to imagine how they 1. carved all the stones, 2. carried them up there, and 3. lined them up on scary ridges.)

Nature taking over. 

We came upon many more watchtowers in varying states of crumbling. Some we walked around, some we climbed over, and some we crawled through. They had small archways, fireplaces, and different rooms.

Jaiyin and Kelly

The wall very dutifully follows ridge lines to better keep an eye on barbarian hordes. There were gaps in the wall for looking out, shooting arrows. Cyril, Josh, and I spent quite a bit of time hypothesizing and demonstrating various defense positions: crouch with arrow? lie down with arrow? aim and then duck? etc.

Because the wall follows the mountains, which are pointy, like a bunch of Ms littered all over, much of our hike was on very steep grades. This was an uphill where Jaiyin was probably wanting to call the driver:

And I'm all like, teehee.

Jaiyin did keep me laughing by exclaiming things like, "This is a miracle!" and "We are amazing!" (us for hiking the wall or the Chinese for building it?).

I don't know what to do with my hands?

Ancient Mongol cell tower in the background.

This descent was no joke at least at a forty-five degree angle. Looking back at it later, Cyril thought some parts were closer to sixty (he went to MIT; I trust his estimations). The left side (of the picture below) was, of course, slippery marble-like slabs, and the right side was packed dirt and bushes. I hung right and held on to the wall for balance. There was sliding, rocks coming lose, and a couple of falls.

Safety first.

We hiked for a few hours. Jaiyin called the driver to tell him we would meet him at the touristy part. We were sweaty and hungry. There was garbage in the watchtowers though we saw only one other small group in our section. I, of course, went on a litter-tirade, and Cyril, who is Malaysian/Canadian/American, told me that twenty years ago, Beijing and the other cities were dirtier and more chaotic. He said he remembers the rivers in Malaysia flowing with garbage. I had it easy, apparently. 

The touristy part has been reconstructed, so the path is relatively smooth, there are staircases, sometimes handrails, and vendors selling "I have come to the Great Wall" tshirts. 

A particularly steep staircase. Kelly-sized feet have to go totally sideways on these.

We went down and up countless, countless stairs. I kept telling Jaiyin it would be good for our butts. We finally found our way to some shuttle buses that took us to the parking lot where the driver was waiting. He dropped us at a restaurant, and Jaiyin ordered too much food (the rest of us couldn't read the menu). But we ate it happily. The iPhone pedometer read nine miles (again), so I didn't feel too bad about some gorging (though I avoided the pork belly).  

After a shower and a nap, Josh and I met up with Cyril for dinner. We wandered through the streets where Cyril showed us his favorite bookstore and restaurants. We came to a brick courtyard with patio seating, lights, and trees. We each ordered different kinds of noodles with mushrooms, and the dishes came in giant bowls filled with broth. It got dark, and I filled up on real Chinese food for the last time. 

The walk home felt so easy. It was not up a forty-five degree angled, thousand year old mountain wall. It was filled with countless people, honking scooters, veering cars, panhandlers, more people, puddles, and garbage--a city like any other big city, but one that was still, for me, incredibly alien and impenetrable. But, finally, after a week in one place, we knew how to get back to the apartment and how to cross the street without dying. I felt absolutely ready to come home.