The Great Wall of China is just that, GREAT! It was unbelievable. I booked a trip to hike the wall from Jinshanlin to Simatai. It was definitely the best way to see the wall. The old-style way for tourists to see the wall is to go to Badaling which is closer to central Beijing. From people I've spoken to, that is a little disappointing. The hike was more than I'd hoped for, so I'd really recommend the hike.
At 7am, I caught a shuttle bus with the other 15 people booked on the tour. I was the last one on the bus, so got the "undesirable" seat in the back of the bus, in the aisle, sandwiched in with three guys. There was nothing to stop me from flying through the windshield in the case of an accident - no seatbelts or seats in front of me. However, I did have an hour to chat up my seatmates and made friends to hike with. Bonus! It would have been awful to have no one to share my raptures over the wall with. The boys were: Motohiro "Hiro", a controller for a French company in Tokyo; Fergus, a PhD candidate in theoretical astrophysics - also a mountain climber in his spare time; and James a solicitor in London.
At the wall, we discovered that we'd arrived on the day of the Great Wall Marathon! So cool. There were runners doing loops back and forth along the wall. It was amazing. For any marathoners reading this blog, try it! It's the marathon I'm doing if I ever go insane and decide to run a marathon. You just need strong ankles to get you over the rough bits on the wall.
First, my little cadre encountered a problem when we arrived last at the wall to find our group gone and two directions to go in with nothing to indicate which was correct. The map that we were shown before leaving the bus seemed to say go right, while Hiro was sure that we were told to turn left at the wall. Eventually, we ran into other people who all agreed that Simatai was to the left. Just to be contrary, we still hiked right to a tower with a great view of the path we were not taking, then turned around and went toward Simatai. Every time we passed a marathoner, we'd stop to clap and whistle and say, "come on, you can do it!!"
We hiked 6 kilometers of the wall, passing 30 towers. Some bits were restored to smoothness and ease, other patches were a little rougher and even dangerous. One woman had an intense fear of heights and had problems with that. What the entire stretch had in common was breath stopping beauty. Every step was the view of a lifetime. It was unbelievable. I still have to give Petra the top spot for my favorite place ever, but the wall is firmly ensconced in the number two spot. I might be influenced by the endorphin release of the hike and the adrenaline bursts when traversing a tricky descent from a tower, but it was truly amazing. The best bit was, all 4 of us agreed that this was a moment that would never come again, and so we took our time, stopping for photos or just a quiet moment whenever we wanted with no one getting impatient at the stop.
At the end of it all was the zip line down to the car park. AWESOME! It actually didn't go very fast, but the views of the wall and the river were amazing. At the bottom, we caught a boat to take us across the river to the car park to get back on the bus back to Beijing. We were the last to arrive and unapologetic for it.
In Beijing, we all took much needed showers and then went out to an Asian Fusion restaurant for a huge spread of food. Everything was delicious. The asparagus with white water lily buds and carrots there is amazing. We also experienced baiju for the first time. Baiju is the local hard alcohol. At 56% alcohol, it's akin to drinking paint thinner. I took one whiff and declined to partake. The men (after climbing the great wall, a male is allowed to call himself a man according to Chairman Mao) all tried a sip and then Fergus kept the bottle to try washing his shoes with.
Over dinner, we chatted about this that and the other, but kept circling back to the wall. Most things, you can learn about from home. You can visit museums, do interactive tours of the Louvre online, etc. Hiking the Great Wall of China is one of those things that you really need to actually go do. It is an experience that I don't think would be possible to regret.
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