Golden Week: Part II -- The Great Wall

In case you missed it, you can find part one of my Golden Week adventures here. This day's adventures come entirely from my journal; the only alterations I'll make are transforming shorthand to complete sentences where necessary.

Day Two: The Great Wall

We woke up at 5:30 this morning (and I was the first one up, Mom & Dad; try not to pass out from shock), got dressed, packed, and left for the Wall. The directions our hostel owner gave us suggest we're in for a bit of a trip: a twenty-minute subway ride, a couple-hour bus ride to a Beijing suburb, and then a hired cab or minibus to Simitai (the section of the Wall we're hiking). We got off the subway and found what could turn into our biggest adventure of the trip: two guys running a minibus, who were speaking rapid-fire Chinese to anyone in the vicinity. Upon seeing us, they asked, "Simitai? Simitai?" We paused, unsure. Cate & I had both heard of a minibus that went straight to Simitai from Beijing, via a guidebook that she had promptly lost. The book was extremely vague, saying only that the bus was small, cheap, and left very early. This one convinced us it was at least worth a try for a few reasons: first, it cost only ten kuai, not a likely price for a scam; second, they never tried to relieve us of our luggage; third, Chinese who looked like hikers themselves were getting on the bus. We decided to go for it. Packed in like sardines (but I with a window seat), we set off.

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Well, I'll be damned. Not only was our minibus legit, it also got us to Miyun faster than at least five or six of the 980 buses that we would've taken otherwise. I've driven through many states, and seen my share of good and bad drivers, but on my oath, I've never seen any driver--New York City cabbies included--get through traffic like this man. Unbelievable. The breakdown lane here is a full-sized lane, but it's often filled with bicycles. That didn't stop our fearless driver, who used it to pass whatever stood in his path. At approximately 9am, we arrived at Miyun and hired a cab to take us the rest of the way to Simitai. Almost there. I can feel it.

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En route: This is gorgeous. Words really can't describe some of the landscapes; at best, the can paint a mediocre image. Let it be known, however: this will not be my last visit to China.

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Simitai. We're here. Holy crap; they weren't kidding when they said this was the toughest section of the Great Wall near Beijing. We got a good look at it from outside our hostel; parts of it remind me of the Knife's Edge trail I hiked on Katahdin. It's a beast, but we can handle it, if not tame it.

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4:47pm, The Great Wall, Hubei province. We've finished our hike for the day, and now we're lounging atop one of the parapets, waiting for sunset so we can take still more pictures. The scenery up here is breathtaking; between the rolling hills and mountains, the endless sea of greens and reds and browns, the wall branching off every which way...it's very easy to see why China has produced so many philosophers. The Wall was brilliantly constructed, once upon a time. Though its mortar now falters and fails, though its bricks may fall, it still flows across the landscape, not a pox on the hills but a part of them. It winds from apex to peak, from dip to valley, resplendent in its glory, eternal in its duty. It's a sight I can't forget.

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Look out, everyone. I'm getting poetic again. God help us all ;)

At day's first light,
It bade them rise
To start their humble tale;
Through dawn and morn,
The call obey'd,
They rode o'er hill and vale.

As midday neared,
The souls prepared,
And set off on their quest;
They heard it speak
Its challenge clear
And vowed to do their best.

Past bridge and trestle,
O'er ridges stone,
They trekked in search of lore--
To one day tell
'Round distant flames
Of these fine Days of Yore.

They conquered all
It that day dared
To send 'gainst he and she
And both did know
As twilight fell
The heroes that they be.

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I thought it was gorgeous by day. I hadn't seen it by night:

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Well. Apparently, scorpions also live on the Great Wall. I just killed one. Fan-friggin-tastic. Bees just piss me off; scorpions actually scare me. Damned poisonous buggers.

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Day 3: Return from the Wall

Okay, I admit it. We were woefully unprepared for a night on the Great Wall. Although the air temperature wasn't that bad, a bitingly cold wind blew in from the north, and neither of us had more than a sweatshirt or fleece and a blanket to protect ourselves from it--and no long pants. We wound up huddled against one side of the wall, shivering and sleeping only a little, until I remembered that Cate had some ponchos with her--left over from CI at GW, no less. Wrapping the ponchos around our legs proved sufficient to stop the wind, and we were at last able to rest a bit. Proper clothing aside, our rations consisted of a few bags of trail mix (two good ones from the states and one bad one which we tried to make here) and three bottles of water between the two of us (I know, Dad; don't kill me). By the time we stopped for the evening, those numbers had both effectively dropped to two of each--meaning we subsisted on nothing but trail mix and water for close to 24 hours. Third, my bloody camera battery died as I was setting up a sunrise shot. I managed only two more photos all day.

All that aside, the view at night from atop the wall was spectacular. The moon lit up the countryside most of the night, allowing for a natural illumination of the wall that transcends words. As the moon set in the early hours of the morning, I beheld a sight I'd previously only seen in planetariums: the star-filled night sky, with no moonlight or man-made light pollution to blot out the view. Indeed, the only other lights we witnessed at this hour were the blinking red and green wingtips of airplanes flying far overhead, their engines out of reach of our ears. I recognized the Big Dipper immediately, and I was able to follow it without trouble to Polaris. There, for the first time I can remember, I clearly made out every star in the Little Dipper. I searched the sky and found Cassiopeia atop her throne; farther along, I spotted Orion via his belt, the rest of the constellation easily visible after that, and opposite him, the full constellation of Taurus turned, preparing to charge the Hunter. The Milky Way raced across the sky, resplendent and majestic, and I thought I spied mighty Pegasus flying 'twixt the nebulae and clusters. I'd do it all again just for that sight alone.

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After taking many pictures of the Sun rising over the Wall to the East, we began the hike back from Jinshan Ling to Simitai. We had to proceed carefully but steadily through the first half of the hike, because we each began the day with just over half a bottle of water. We made excellent time despite our lack of hydration and finally found a local farmer selling water on the Wall. During prime daylight hours, such entrepreneurs are a common sight, but our early start today caused us to hike most of the journey without encountering them. We made it back across the Wall in just three hours, much quicker than the five it took us to reach Jinshan Ling yesterday. As we turned off the Wall and down the long, winding path back to the hostel, we noticed something called the "Flying Fox" on the side of the path. Our jaws dropped as we realized that this was a harnessed zipline all the way back to base for a meager 35 kuai. We needed no further convincing. Shooting down over a lake, with the Great Wall in the background and the Sun warming my skin, I thought surely this must be paradise.