A Great Wall to start
China. Tibet. Nepal. Planes, trains and automobiles. Seventeen days to travel from Beijing to Kathmandu, negotiating all forms of travel, extremes of elevation and weather, government regulations, visas and travel permits, enjoying strange foods along the way and staying at a wide range of accommodations. Its a bit ambitious, not without risks and a nightmare to organise in advance. We landed in Beijing in the early hours of Day One but our amazing adventure began more with a thud than a bang.
Beijing is a crazy city, more than 20 million people and 6 million cars, amazing highrise architectural masterpieces along with traditional hutong communities, all forms of transport and people crowded everywhere, a permanent brown haze sitting on top of everything. Our plan was to spend three days in Beijing with the feature event being a 12 kilometre walk along a remote part of the Great Wall, fulfilling a dream we’ve had for seven years since we first came to Beijing together.
But within hours our big plan turned pear-shaped. The local ‘agent’ that we had been given by our Tibet agent who was supposed to buy our train tickets for the two day journey from Beijing to Lhasa somehow didn’t do it and by the time he tried they were all sold out. Despite numerous attempts and channels to overcome this major problem inevitably we were left with nothing. Bitterly disappointed, we were forced to buy tickets to fly to Lhasa instead. So in the end this problem wasn’t going to impact our Tibet or Nepal plans but was a major bummer for us on our big Chinese adventure.
But the Great Wall was still there, much like it has been for 2,000 years, and our plan was to walk a rather obscure and relatively unvisited section of the wall and experience this unbelievable structure from a different perspective than the popular half day tourist excursion at Badaling which we did last time. We were heading further afield to a place called Gubeikuo, a two hour drive from our hotel in downtown Beijing. We arrived at an empty car park, hoisted our day packs and followed our guide up the trail.
The initial versions of the Great Wall were built in the first century BC to keep the invading marauders from the north away from the southern towns and ports of what is now China. The wall was added to over the centuries, most recently by the Ming Dynasty from the 14th to 17th century which made the Wall longer, higher and stronger. Most of what can be seen of today’s wall comes from this era.
The Emperors of China were constantly being attacked by ambitious rulers of the north, most famously Genghis Khan who was able to defeat the Chinese by going around the Wall (in fact, the Wall is actually a series of unconnected walls, the longest of which is about 2,000 kilometres). The Ming builders invented a mortar made of rice flour to keep the stones firmly in place (still seen today) and also invented the wheelbarrow to help build the Wall and gunpowder to help defend it.
Our plans were a little more modest as we made the 20 minute climb up the valley to get to the base of the wall. From there we climbed up the stone steps and were instantly stunned by the scene that panned out in both directions. The terrain in all directions was very rugged with steep rolling mountains covered in thick trees and bushes. This was an inhospitable yet beautiful place of green mountains and blue sky.
But running along the spine of the highest ridge of mountains in a general east-west direction was the most extraordinary snake of a structure, as if caught in a freeze frame as it slithered along the mountain ridge as far as the eye can see in either direction. The Great Wall of China in full form, in some places 40 feet high and 20 feet wide, an engineering feat to defy all others, a magnificent showcase to the rich and proud history of China. And we were standing on top of it.
A little awe struck by the scene before us we slowly started to walk in an easterly direction, carefully negotiating the path along the top of the wall. This section had not been restored at all and in many places it had suffered considerable damage, making the trail narrow and tricky. But as the wall generally followed the highest ridge of mountains it meant two key features – magnificent views in all directions at all times and some very steep sections as it climbed up and over mountain points. On numerous occasions we were left to almost crawl hand over feet up huge steps, testing the loose stones, stopping for photos and gazing off into the distance.
The glaring hot sun may have washed out most of our photos but we couldn’t stop from snapping and videoing madly in what has to be one of the most photogenic people-less scenes possible. And every hill top, every little valley, every tower each presented new views both forward and backward, following where we have been and where we are going. It was a tingling experience, made more so because we were walking on original wall in a section very rarely visited and we were the only humans within sight all morning.
After about two hours on the wall we came to the end of the Gubeikuo section and as expected had to drop off the wall to walk around a section closed due to a nearby Chinese military base. But what this allowed us to do was to walk parallel to the wall, see if from a different perspective and enjoy a mountain trail led by our chirpy guide (just call me Michael). Eventually we passed through some modest fields hand-plowed to grow wheat and corn. We came across a couple of the local peasant farmers watering their small plots by hand, probably much the same way as Genghis Khan found them 500 years ago.
We came to a little village with only three families in it but were welcomed into a home and served a delicious lunch of peanuts, rice, eggs, a cold wheat noodle and a fantastic pork and celery concoction. A great way to catch our breath, fortify our stomachs and appreciate life in a rural setting of China.
Back up the hill through some crunching switchbacks on a full stomach to the base of the wall and then we clamoured up onto this monstrous snake again. On we trekked eastward, up and down the steep sections, each summit providing grand views of the mountains and wall in all directions. This is called the Jinshaling section and as we progressed we saw the first signs of restoration on the wall. This is a slightly more popular section for tourists (over 95% of which are Chinese) and has a more significant historical value to the locals, hence more investment from the government.
But we enjoyed this last final section, full of dramatic ups and downs, trying to imagine how the local forces would guard such a long structure day and night from those nasty Mongolians and other barbarians. The building of the wall allegedly cost millions of lives and defending it must have been equally daunting. Much easier to stroll along it in good shoes, enjoy the dramatic mountain scenery and take photos.
That night we enjoyed a great dinner with friends who live in Beijing (thanks Bart and Idoya) to top off a great day. Beijing is a crazy, vibrant, somewhat dusty and not totally friendly place but we were having a hoot of a time and looking forward to a couple more days in this vast metropolis.