The Wall

Our narrative will get a bit broken up from this point forward, because we have been so long in not posting, all the while collecting interesting and valuable experiences.

A couple months ago, we went to the Great Wall. We went with our friends Grace, Karen, Dorothy and Sol. We hired a private driver to take us from Beijing to a section of the wall called Simatai 司马台. There are three sections of the wall near Beijing that tourists go to. The closest, and with the most tourists, is called Badaling. The next closest is called Mutianyu. That section has many extreme adventure options, like ziplining. The furthest, but the most "authentic" is Simatai. There are many sections that date from the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall was originally built in the Qin Dynasty, about 2200 years ago. Back then, it was built of rammed earth. They built two wooden walls, filled up with dirt in between the two walls, and stomped on the dirt until it was all hard, then took away the walls. Over the next several centuries, some parts were maintained, some weren't at various times. In the Ming Dynasty, about five or six hundred years ago, they built up the wall again. This time they made it out of brick and stone. This is what we see today.

The walls at Badaling and Mutianyu have been significantly restored for tourism purposes. The one at Simatai also has, but there are large sections of it which are original from the Ming Dynasty. In other, more remote areas, the wall is falling down in pieces.

Anyways, back to the present day. The driver charged us 200 RMB apiece, for eight hours of driving. He would drive us there 2 hours, wait for us 4 hours, then drive us back 2 hours. This is a pretty standard price apparently.

We made it up there, and were appropriately awed by the sight of it. You see it in pictures and movies but it's not the same, of course.

The climb took us about 3 hours altogether. We hit probably about 10 of those little towers. The steps were difficult going because they were both steep and uneven and precarious. In some steps, you can only fit half your shoe on the step, so you're sort of going up by your tiptoes. The steps are uneven, I think so that enemies would be slowed down if they were racing over it. In any case, it's somewhat hazardous if you aren't careful. I imagine many people twist their ankles there every year. It's fairly wide, but in many sections, there is no side wall, so you're literally walking on top of just a wall. Don't walk too close to the edge!

We walked and climbed and walked. Stopped for lunch, which we had packed with us. Then we reached the end, and took a gondola back down to the parking lot.

One lady, you can see her in some of the pictures, she followed us on the wall. She was very helpful, telling us about the history and helping us over difficult spots. Then, at the end, she tried to sell us some stuff. She told us that she has no other way of earning income, no other job, in her nearby village. Some of our group bought some souvenirs.

For further information, here is a link to the wikipedia page on Simatai. And here is the Great Wall.

And here are a few of our pictures from the Great Wall. (Click on it to be taken to the album)

wall