The Wall
Back in Beijing for a few hours, so got some time for another post...
Yesterday took us a few hours out of Beijing to explore a stretch of the Great Wall, a lesser-visited part between Jingshanling to Simatai. Talk about a totally exhilerating experience! Firstly... it's just bloody cool that you're on the GREAT WALL OF CHINA! But add to that some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen - pure 360 degree views of rolling mountains, and amazingly every time you looked up, the view was better than when you looked before! And it's also such an amazing feat of construction you're standing on - it's just mind-blowing to contemplate how they could have built such a magnificent structure in such challenging terrain that would stand the test of time. Not an easy walk though. The first few kms aren't too bad as it's mostly restored there, so the paths, steps and sides of the wall itself are somewhat even and intact, but after that, when we hit the parts that weren't so restored, it became quite an arduous little trek! Each watchtower we passed through seemed to present a more fun (i.e. challenging) stretch - the steps were incredibly uneven, there was a lot of climbing (and sometimes sliding) involved, and at various times we were tackling 70 degree inclines!
But everyone handled it well, and we had a little help along the way from a group of Mongolian farmers and their wives, who literally pick you off one-for-one at Jingshanling and become your buddy for most of the walk - they help you up and down the tricky bits, provide some entertaining conversation (so much fun with their limited English and our frightfully terrible Chinese!), and even a bag full of Great Wall merchadise to peddle to you at the end (and how was I going to refuse to buy a 'I Climbed The Great Wall' t-shirt after my buddy - a tiny, 48-year-old farmer's wife - had trekked that whole distance alongside me (making it look relatively easy, I might add!).
To top it all off, we were up at the very unnatural hour of 5:30am to hike back up to the wall to watch the sunrise - and that was a totally surreal experience in itself. Even though it was bloody cold and my brain was barely functioning from being up so early, it was totally worth it to be up there all by ourselves as the whole mountainside slowly revealed itself for a new day. So cool!
Time to go - got an overnight train to catch to X'ian (our first China train experience!). I'll try and post some pics of the wall soon (this computer's pretty dodge - my last few attempts to upload some photos crashed the system) - hopefully in the next few days.
Until then, hope everyone's safe and well. Check back in soon!
Yesterday took us a few hours out of Beijing to explore a stretch of the Great Wall, a lesser-visited part between Jingshanling to Simatai. Talk about a totally exhilerating experience! Firstly... it's just bloody cool that you're on the GREAT WALL OF CHINA! But add to that some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen - pure 360 degree views of rolling mountains, and amazingly every time you looked up, the view was better than when you looked before! And it's also such an amazing feat of construction you're standing on - it's just mind-blowing to contemplate how they could have built such a magnificent structure in such challenging terrain that would stand the test of time. Not an easy walk though. The first few kms aren't too bad as it's mostly restored there, so the paths, steps and sides of the wall itself are somewhat even and intact, but after that, when we hit the parts that weren't so restored, it became quite an arduous little trek! Each watchtower we passed through seemed to present a more fun (i.e. challenging) stretch - the steps were incredibly uneven, there was a lot of climbing (and sometimes sliding) involved, and at various times we were tackling 70 degree inclines!
But everyone handled it well, and we had a little help along the way from a group of Mongolian farmers and their wives, who literally pick you off one-for-one at Jingshanling and become your buddy for most of the walk - they help you up and down the tricky bits, provide some entertaining conversation (so much fun with their limited English and our frightfully terrible Chinese!), and even a bag full of Great Wall merchadise to peddle to you at the end (and how was I going to refuse to buy a 'I Climbed The Great Wall' t-shirt after my buddy - a tiny, 48-year-old farmer's wife - had trekked that whole distance alongside me (making it look relatively easy, I might add!).
To top it all off, we were up at the very unnatural hour of 5:30am to hike back up to the wall to watch the sunrise - and that was a totally surreal experience in itself. Even though it was bloody cold and my brain was barely functioning from being up so early, it was totally worth it to be up there all by ourselves as the whole mountainside slowly revealed itself for a new day. So cool!
Time to go - got an overnight train to catch to X'ian (our first China train experience!). I'll try and post some pics of the wall soon (this computer's pretty dodge - my last few attempts to upload some photos crashed the system) - hopefully in the next few days.
Until then, hope everyone's safe and well. Check back in soon!
posted by Steph and Dan Rasmussen @ 6:35 pm
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