2002-12-10 - 11:25 p.m.

Heroes On The Great Wall

Beijing, Nov. 16

Continuing the story of our trip to China

After lunch and wandering around the Friendship Store we piled onto our little van and headed for the Great Wall.

The particular part we were headed for was the Badaling section of the Great Wall. It somewhat disappointed me to learn that the Great Wall is, in fact, several Great Walls. There are fragments of it spread all over China, and they were built at several different times. The most ancient parts of the Great Wall were built by the emperor Qin before 200 B.C. but most of it, including the Badaling section, were built by the Ming emperors around 1400 A.D.

Oh and by the way, the old saw about the Great Wall being the only man-made object visible from space is debunked here.

On the way there we saw something curious - it looked to be a small section of Disneyland, replete with fantasy castle towers, sitting by the side of the highway. According to Vivian, some years ago the mayor of Beijing had the idea to build an amusement park on the outskirts of the city, but it was discovered that he was doing it with public funds so he was thrown out of office. Construction on the amusement park, which looked to be about 70% done, was halted and never continued. Now, it's years later and the place is still there, an almost-brand-new looking amusement park ghost town. Creeeepy.

By the way, the road to the Great Wall was very new and modern, in fact I would have thought we were on an interstate in the U.S. except for all the Chinese buildings on either side of the road. In fact, the major highways seemed to be in better shape than those in the states. Even though Beijing greatly impressed me as a clean, modern city you could still see huge differences between rich and poor - on one side of the highway you'd see the gleaming spires of glass skyscrapers and on the other side you'd see a cluster of miserable shanties made of corrugated tin.

Looks like the Chinese have got the capitalism thing figured out pretty well already.

To my surprise we didn't have to take some tortuous country road to get to the Great Wall - the highway we were on wound up going right under it. The van pulled over and made its way toward a large parking area.

The weather seemed to have turned colder since we were at the Ming Tombs. Snow flurries were falling from the sky and a cold breeze was blowing. I was definitely glad I was wearing my warmest clothes.

As for the Great Wall, the word "spectacular" hardly does it justice. The highway was in a valley between two mountains and the Wall veered up sharply and followed a squiggly trail over the nearby visible peaks. It's one thing to see vistas like that on postcards or in books, but to see those almost vertical climbs right in front of me almost gave me vertigo.

From photos I'd previously seen, I'd assumed that the top of the Great Wall was like a very wide sidewalk, but I hadn't taken the mountainous terrain of northern China into account. If you're not a fan of supernaturally steep staircases, you won't like the Great Wall.

While trolling online I found this picture of the Badaling section of the Great Wall. This picture shows the west side of the highway, which we judged was too steep and nasty to climb. This picture only gives a hint at how terribly steep the stairs were, but as you can see all sorts of tourists climb them anyway. We climbed up the east side of the wall, which looked like this.

Looking at these pictures gives me mixed feelings on visiting the Great Wall in mid-November: it looks a lot prettier in August, but look at those crowds! It was a chilly, gray day when we were there and visibility was not good, but we practically had the thing all to ourselves.

Vivian told us a little about the Great Wall and then left us to clamber around it. She mentioned that there is a Chinese saying to the effect of "One cannot be a hero unless you have climbed the Great Wall" which we took to mean that only wimpy-ass tourists goggle at it from the valley. However, as I later discovered the actual quote is "One cannot be a hero unless you have SEEN the Great Wall." She tricked us into climbing that monstrosity! She herself stayed at the bottom, waiting for us to come down.

At the bridge over the highway there was a little souvenir stand selling tourist stuff, including a T-shirt that read: "I Climbed The Great Wall!" in English and Chinese. Who could resist such a thing? The little stand also sold Coke and Oreo cookies. All the comforts of home, on the Great Wall.

Lily and I then began the arduous climb up the eastern side of the wall. The stairs started to veer up sharply and the steps seemed perilously narrow so I was clambering up them using both arms and legs. I have a mild fear of heights, so I did my level best not to look behind me while I was climbing. I couldn't conceive of coming back down these stairs again facing forward. Was I going to have to back down them like a crab?

The cold day and Lily's asthma meant that we had to take frequent breaks and the other two middle-aged couples quickly outpaced us.

Oh, and here is a shot someone took about halfway up the western side of the Badaling wall, looking down on the eastern side. The highway between the sections is all but invisible, hidden by the guard towers and the parking lot. We ascended to the top of the east section, then took the more gently sloping path you can see on the left side of the picture down to highway level. That was fairly steep too, but at least Mr. Chicken Hamster didn't have to back down it.

About halfway up, Lily announced that she had to go to the bathroom. We looked in the nearby guardhouse and there were no facilities. The nearest bathroom seemed to be down at the bottom, so I said I was willing to turn back. Lily wouldn't hear of it, and she didn't think she could make it that far anyway so instead she took a wee in the big stone guardhouse while I stood watch outside. I would have been more upset about her peeing on a national monument if I wasn't sure that it had probably been done 1,000,000 times before. Lily saw a little girl just squat and pee at the Nanjing Memorial some months ago.

If nothing else this should contrast how deserted the Great Wall was compared to how it was thronged in the pictures I linked.

Well, maybe we sound a little nutty but we couldn't be nuttier than THESE people - they're going to be running a marathon on the wall next May! Now THAT'S insane!

Continued