The Great Wall of China

The day before we left for Beijing, I read in the newspaper that there have been 168 flaws logged for the Chinese bullet train system. A flaw (in this particular article) ranged from minor technical glitches to structural issues with the track. It seems there is much debate going on as to the severity of these flaws on what should be done to rectify them. The only precautionary measure taken up to this point is that the trains have been slowed down to travel at a much reduced speed. Specific to the Beijing-Shanghai line, 54 trains by one manufacturer were recalled the previous month due to safety concerns. With this information and the news of the recent accident of the bullet train accident when many people were killed, we thought long and hard about whether or not we should take the train from Shanghai to Beijing. I am risk averse in so many ways. I won’t even eat something if I sense the remote possibility it will give me diarrhea. We decided to take the 4 hour and forty-five minute bullet train ride on Saturday afternoon. It definitely felt fast; much faster than the trains we've been taking in Europe. The floor was vibrating the whole time and I felt a little nauseous. It was cool when we passed another train and it zipped by in a second and all we could see was a blur.

Needless to say, we survived and made it safely to Beijing in time for a nice roasted duck dinner at Quanjude Restaurant. We arrived there not long before their closing time, so by the end of the meal, Kalp, Ezequiel, Jenn and I were literally the customers remaining at the restaurant. The duck was rich, juicy, fatty, and delicious. I had gone into the trip saying I would eat duck every single day in Beijing, but after this one meal, I had my fill. It’s just too rich. Ezequiel heard from someone who supposedly knows that the way they get the skin so crispy and separate it from the meat is by “blowing” the duck, which we assume means they literally blow air into the duck. We’re not sure how they do this or if this is even true, but there are only two openings in a duck in which one can blow air, so for the sake of whomever has to actually blow the duck and for the duck itself (even if dead at the time), we were all hoping it was through the beak.

We were picked up early on Sunday by our tour guide and driver from Great Wall Hiking and had a pleasant 2 hour ride to what seemed like the middle of nowhere. We were surrounded by mountains and could see a portion of The Wall in the distance. It was high. It was clear to all of us that we were hiking straight up. It would not be easy. Our group, led by our guide, Robert, consisted of (besides Jenn and me) four of my co-workers: Neal (who is based in Taiwan), Ezequiel (based in the US, but was in Shanghai for work), Kalp (also in the audit group, but is based in Singapore), and Charles (who has made several cameos in this blog and is on assignment in Bratislava with me).

We started out on the steep trail and for an hour hiked through jungle like conditions through branches, weeds, etc. on our way up to the entrance to the wall at Jiankou. It was hard. The temperature was relatively cool, but we all worked up a good sweat on our way to the top. Robert, the guide, informed us when we reached the top that we had just completed the most difficult part of what would be a 5 hour hike.

The Jiankou portion of the wall is still in its original and unrestored state. This means lots of loose stones, no level paths, and overgrown with trees and shrubs. This made for a difficult two hours of hiking. It was also much steeper in parts than I imagined. The part of the wall built by the Ming Dynasty spanned 6500 KM. We were covering roughly 10 in our hike.

We had a really fun and challenging two hours along the Jiankou section. It was foggy, but the views were still incredible. Each corner we turned was better than the previous one. My favorite part of this part of the hike (actually of the whole hike) was a section where we had a very steep incline to the top of a mountain and then the steep decline back on the other side. Footing was not secure and it was legitimately dangerous, requiring us to grab onto the side of the wall and hold on for dear life in order to stay standing up.

We eventually reached Mutianyu, which is a restored section of the wall. We purposely chose this hike because we had been told that visiting some of the more touristy sections of the wall could be extremely crowded with people and feel kind of like DisneyLand with how clean and new the wall looks and because of all the vendors selling junk. It was a dramatic contrast when we reached the dividing line between Jiankou and Mutianyu as we went from old to new, from three hours of no people, to needing to weave in and out of hundreds (thousands maybe) of other people and vendors selling drinks and knick knacks. I can’t even imagine how crowded it gets the section (Ba Da Ling) that is closest to Beijing that is most popular. I will admit though, this newer, nicer looking section did make for excellent pictures.

From pictures, it’s hard to appreciate how steep and challenging walking along The Wall can be. These two hours along the restored section consisted of steep inclines, declines, and a lot of steps. It’s not a casual stroll in the park. I understand why people who want to see the wall go to the newer, easier parts, and it’s nice that everyone has the opportunity to experience “The Great Wall.”

We passed on hiking down to the bottom once exiting and instead took the gondola down to the parking lot. We were sore and exhausted.

Lunch was at a local restaurant, which was enjoyable. I imagine anything would have tasted good at that point as it was 3:30 or so and besides two miniature Snickers bars provided by our guide, we hadn’t eaten all day.

I tend to have a very low level of enthusiasm for… pretty much everything. It takes something truly magnificent to get me excited. Hiking the "Great Wall of China" was one of those things. It was an incredibly awesome experience and one that I will never forget. There are certain moments I’ve experienced when traveling that I haven’t truly been able to appreciate until I’ve seen them in person. Michelangelo’s “David” was one such thing. The Parthenon was another. There are others. These are moments, memories that are so much bigger and important than the stamps in my passport that simply say “Joey was here”.  We have wonderful pictures and a certificate and a button from the tour company, but the experience and feelings I had will always be with me.

See more pictures here.