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Published: January 7th 2009
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I got up at 5 AM on New Year’s Day to go on a tour to see the
Great Wall of China. I can’t say that I jumped out of bed ready to go, but I was excited. I decided to take the tour because I had been having trouble getting moving in the morning and I was afraid that I would miss my opportunity to see the wall if I tried to get out there on my own steam.
When I booked the tour the agent said with a concerned, pitying look in her eye that, because I wanted to go on New Year’s, I would be alone on the tour. I was wondering “… And that’s a bad thing?”
I chose the Simitai section, which is three hours away but less visited by tourists than the Badaling section closest to Beijing. Four other people were in the van with me, but they were going to go on a different section of the wall.
On the way out there, I was disappointed to find out that you can’t really see the Great Wall of China from outer space. That’s just an urban myth that I learned as fact. I also found out
that it’s not really THE Great Wall, but the Great WALLS of China. It isn’t just one wall but a few walls built over the course of several centuries and different dynasties to ward off invaders from the north. The era of wall building ended when diplomacy and trade became more of the norm. (This might be something of which the governments of the U.S. and Israel should take note.)
Anyway, they dropped me off near the park entrance at about 8:45 and told me to be back by 1:30. After struggling to figure out how to load the film in my camera, I headed off up the wall. I really was the only one there. My first and lasting impression was I thought that if I were the ruler of the time I might be inclined to let the invaders have this section of rugged land rather than put a wall on this impossibly jagged mountain ridge line. I can’t imagine how hard it was to build it by dragging large bricks and building materials to the top of the mountain in the freezing cold and incredible heat.
I started hiking up and had the best time on
my own in this ancient place. For a while, a souvenir seller briefly followed me. I got her to snap a picture of me and finally managed to convince her that I was only there to see the sights. I went as far as I could go and had a lovely snack in a watchtower top of the mountain while contemplated my good fortune to get to experience this. What a great way to start the year!
On my way back down I passed the throngs of people beginning to huff and puff their way up the mountain on the wall. I had been extra fortunate to get there early enough to be on my own and allow my imagination to bring me back to the days of the wall without the interruptions of other tourist trying to have their own experience. I was ¾ of the way down when I heard a man say “Zip line. You want to go?” After about five minutes of deliberation, I found myself strapped into a harness and gliding down a cable over the water reservoir and the rest of the way down to the parking lot. What a perfect end to the
hike!
There are a bunch of photos waaaaaay down at the bottom of the page. Scroll down to the bottom of this page or double-click on the pictures to see more photos connected with this blog.
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non-member comment
Great Trip
So wonderful & exciting