The Great Wall - Jinshanling to Simatai

According to my guidebook, Mao Zedong once said "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man," and that sounds like a challenge to me. Not wanting to be outdone by the Communist icon, I made my way to the massive structure, a miraculous feat of engineering and labor. The wall was originally begun in the years 221-207 BC, as a part of the Qin Dynasty. In some places, separate walls existed, but the aim was to unify the walls to protect against invaders and even encroachment from the Gobi desert. Hundreds of thousands of political prisoners and other workers toiled for 10 years on this gargantuan task, though it was not enough to stop the Mongolians and Genghis Khan/Chinggis Khaan from making it past the wall and taking control of the country for a while. Later, during the Ming Dynasty, the wall was re-fortified and thickened, stretching into over a hundred years of work. Since then, tourism has been the only other real force in restoring the wall, particularly in a few places around Beijing. (Thanks to Lonely Planet for the history lesson)

I chose to begin my trip at Jinshanling, a less restored section of the wall including 24 watchtowers that held sentries and were used to signal information from one tower to another using smoke from burning wolves' dung. Of something like 4,000 kilometers that the Great Wall stretches, I found a tour that covers 10 undulating kilometers, giving us about four hours on the wall. I preferred this approach to simply visiting the most popular site, walking back and forth for 30 minutes and heading back to Beijing. To begin the trek, we had the option of taking a lift to the crest of the hill/mountain or to hike 40 minutes up the trail. Persuaded by the promise of great aerial views, I opted for the tram, though the views from the wall itself proved to actually be better.

Taking a quick dirt trail from the tram, I was soon awed by the views from the classic shots of the Great Wall. A long, grey, rocky wall stretched across the horizon, following the green ridgeline for as far as the eye can see. Along most of the peaks stand the watchtowers, small spikes in the distance of this infinite spectacle. I was hoping to find a never-ending view of this man-made marvel at some point during the day, and I wasn't disappointed. In both directions, the hazy green mountains were topped by the snaking wall, following every curve and contour of the land. Up to 30 or 40 feet off the ground below and falling apart and running along the ground in a few other spots, this section of the wall would be perfect for a day's exploration. Also perfect was the fact that our tour bus of a little less than 30 tourists comprised almost everyone on the wall in that area, other than some intrepid salesmen who didn't prove to be too bothersome. In fact, one girl that accompanied me for about 30 minutes even took some good pictures of me with my camera, so I gave her a little tip at the end for that, though I didn't buy any of her t-shirts or artwork. Inspired by the journey ahead, I immediately climbed the stairs of the first watchtower, circled around to its exit and was on the masterpiece. Just as advertised, this wasn't an easy hike, but it was well worth it.

Before the afternoon was over, we walked about 10 km (6 miles) on top of the wall, under the bright sun and (relatively) blue skies. Some sections of the walk feature nicely cobbled stone and mortar that looked as if it had recently been refinished while other sections included parts with grass growing through the broken stones, hardly any barrier for crossing from one side to the other. This combination was great, giving me every view and experience at the wall that I could hope for. After about three hours of walking up and down the steep slopes and never-ending stairs, I reached the Simatai section, seeing a long downhill ahead, followed by what looked like an impossibly steep uphill that I was dreading. As I descended, I saw that the wall is actually broken up by a small river at the bottom of the trough, connected by a long swinging bridge, at the end of which they charge you another 5 Yuan ($0.80), as if you have any other option than to pay it. Going up the treacherous stairs that lay in the rising section ahead, I was happy to see that the end of our journey was only a few hundred meters up the stairs.

Enthralled and bordering on exhausted, I stepped away from the wall for the first time in hours, and I found the next Chinese contraption designed to remove money from the wallets of tourists. It was a simple choice: you could either walk 35 minutes down to the restaurant and road below, or you could pay another $6 to attach yourself to the cable above, strap in to a harness and sail down the zipline, over the lake below, in just about one minute. Initially, I decided that I'd just walk, but after some deliberation, I turned back and headed for the quick/adventurous way. Having done ziplines before, I knew it would be fun, if not a little scary, to slide down the cable, also knowing that this was a pretty good price for the attraction. Flying through the air, I had a good final view of the wall behind me, and before I knew it, I was at the bottom, waiting for the last boat to take us to the restaurant and recounting stories of the memorable walk with Jun and Chris, the Filipino and Swiss guys I met on the bus ride over. Our lunch buffet was nothing special, but it was all-you-can eat, so it can't be that bad. This whole experience of the Great Wall was another of those things that I knew I'd do at some point in my life, and I couldn't have picked a better way to experience it than to walk four hours along it, all the while accompanied by very few, if any, other people. (Thanks Frank for the recommendation, too.)

(The classic view of the Great Wall, stretching for just a bit of its massive length.)

(Note the lack of other people...it was a great day to be on the wall.)

(Steep stairs led us up and down the crests of the mountains.)

(More of the wall...this thing goes on forever.)

(We passed about 30 of these watchtowers, a few of which were filled with vendors trying to sell water and cheap souvenirs. I was not persuaded.)

(I believe this picture was taken by one of the vendors who followed me around and proved to be useful in taking pictures.)

(A slightly less restored part of the wall where the sides are falling apart and grass is beginning to grow through some cracks.)


(A window into the soul of the Great Wall.)

(The steep part in the background is the part of Simatai that I was dreading. Luckily we only went up about 1/3 of the way.)

(I was so tired by the end that I resorted to crawling on my knees...or I was just posing for a picture.)

(The zipline taking us from the wall to a waiting boat and our buffet lunch just around the corner. The ride only lasted about a minute, but it was quite fun.)