Learn China by walking the Great Wall in Beijing- Day Three

Learn China by walking the Great Wall- Day Three

Wed, 12 May 2010 22:39 GMT+8

By Debra Giudice from Italy

Debra, Gian and their two boys, Giacomo and Enrico, hiked the Great Wall for 3 days in later March around Beijing. The following is their hiking story.

Day 3: Friday, 2 April 2010

We count ourselves very lucky with the weather as it is again a very sunny, though cold, day. Buffet-style breakfast in a small restaurant off to the side of our hotel. Gary has to make our tea, for reasons we do not understand. Congee, hard-boiled eggs. I suspect Gary has had them prepare us a kind of bigoli with tomato sauce, as he was asking us yesterday what was the typical kind of food we eat and now miss. I have forgotten my gloves in the gameroom last night, but the boy in charge has kept them for me.

Receiving a certificate after hiking the Great Wall

As we approach the Great Wall from the road, a large sign declares that this section is closed to the public. Gary has already explained to us that this is not really true, just that the Chinese authorities put such signs to keep the majority of tourists within the restored areas. This serves two purposes: one, it helps, of course, to preserve the physical Wall, but it also serves to make it simpler to collect fees. We stop the van at the foot of the mountain and scruff up a small black, bowlegged dog. He follows us up the steep wooded path, but at a certain point Gary firmly sends him back. Gary also suffers a bit of uncertainty about the path, but it is the first time, we learn, that he does it in this way: we are doing today's hike "backwards," in the sense that he usually takes people from Mutianyu to Jiankou, but today we are doing the reverse. There are snowy patches in the woods, and sometimes there is ice along the path. It is a very steep ascent, sometimes I lag behind. Our path takes us up above the first reaches of the Wall, above the level of many of the watchtowers, and still we continue to climb. We are headed to the highest tower: Zhengbeilou Tower at about 900m.

The view from Zhengbeilou is truly breathtaking. All the surrounding hills lie below us, and the Great Wall snakes away from us in two directions. The sky is bright blue. We take several photographs. As we walk away, Gary remarks with some affection that the watchtower is standing like an old general still at his post after 600 years.

This section of the Wall is somewhat different in construction than that we have seen before: it has a very deep base of rock, with a short brick top. It is quite wild and in ruins, but it is also very nice and easy to walk. Small trees grow atop the Wall, and the vegetation is quite thick at times. Snow is piled up along the shadowy base of the Wall, and other tourists are few today.

At a certain point the Wall makes a strange steep ascent and descent, returning close to its own starting point. Gary takes us straight across, thus making the short cut. In Chinese this section is called "the horns of the ox."

The dividing line between the restored and unrestored sections of the Wall is very sharp and abrupt here. As we enter the restored section, there are suddenly many tourists. The restored section ends with a very long, very steep staircase, at the top of which many tourists shriek or pretend to faint. We descend instead. There are three cannons.

At a certain point we decide to have a picnic lunch even though we have not especially prepared any food to take with us this day. Gary had been planning to go to a restaurant as soon as we get off the Wall, but he is not too disconcerted by the change of plan. On the other hand, it seems that Gary is not feeling particularly well, and is compelled to leave us a couple of times. We share what we have with Gary, and the conversation turns for the first time to politics. Gary deftly fends off our concerns about Tibet. It is at this point that I learn that 800 million Chinese, those living in the rural areas, have no pension or health insurance. The weight of this fact sinks in all day. We make an appointment at the tobaggan run.

At the head of the tobaggan run, we find Gary waiting for us. We all go down the slide: Giacomo first, but the fellows ahead of him slow us all down. Along the run, working men in very worn, old, green Chinese army greatcoats shout at us with megaphones to either slow down or go faster, depending on the traffic situation. At the bottom of the run there is a crowd of hawkers and vendors: Gian buys a small chess set.

We start driving towards the Ming Tombs through the countryside: it seems very bleak indeed to me, and very poor.

At the Tombs we find Gary very well-prepared again, and he gives us much more information than that provided on the large signs around the complex. We find out, for example, that these tombs had been rather badly damaged during the Cultural revolution (the bodies of the Emperor and the Empresses were burned), and how this is now used as a reason for protecting the unexcavated tombs in China. We do not have time to visit the Sacred Way at the end of our visit, but we do go to the Underground Palace and the Palace Museum. I am intrigued by the piles of money tossed before the tombs of the emperor and empresses. Gary explains that rural people throw their money there to win the favor of the old ghosts.

During our drive back to Beijing we discuss the problem of where to have dinner this evening. Gary offers to take us to a place nearby. We drop our suitcases off at the hotel and walk across the street to a shopping mall. The wait at Gary's restaurant is too long, however, and we must go to a fast food place nearby. Gary asks us information about some methods to help him market his business, but we do not really have the information that he needs.

Learn China by Walking the Great Wall- Day Two

Learn China by Walking the Great Wall- Day One

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