Walking the Wall

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Hey everyone!

On Saturday we (finally!) made it to 長城 (chángchéng, the Great Wall). Even I'm impressed that we have been here for over two months and have just made it to the Great Wall! I'm glad we made it though, because it was just as beautiful and amazing as everyone says it is. We went to 金山嶺 Jīnshānlǐng, a part of the Great Wall that is less popular with tourists. I thought it was less popular because it is a three-hour drive outside of the city, but I didn't realize that there was more to it than that. It turns out that the portion of 長城 that we visited is known for being incredibly hilly. It ended up taking us four hours to hike through 15 towers of the Great Wall; when I use the word "hike," I definitely don't use it lightly.

First of all, getting up to the Wall itself involved lots of steep stairs and a few switchbacks. Once on the Wall, it quickly became apparent that the towers sit on top of the hills, while in between the towers the Wall follows the natural dips in the mountains. The first section of the Wall that we walked was restored, so it looked as it does in most of the pictures that you see floating around on the internet and in social media, and in all of that good stuff. However, after about five towers, we hit the section of the Wall that hasn't been restored. This section of the Wall has crumbling sections of pathways and towers, and the knowledge that it is still fully original brickwork and that it is still in relatively good shape is pretty dang cool. I think for those reasons the unrestored area definitely made me feel a greater sense of respect for those who gave their lives to build this wall, as ineffective as I think it probably was.

Speaking of ineffective, I would like to talk about those stairs, if they can even be called that. First of all, they were crazy steep. Picture a normal staircase made of bricks. Normally, the long part of the brick will lie parallel to your foot as you step on them, and the widest part will be perpendicular. So if you were to look at the staircase at eye level, you would see the most square side of the brick. For some reason, the Chinese took those bricks and flipped them so that each step is taller and much thinner. So not only were the steps super tall, they were very narrow, and as terrifying as it was to climb up them (which to be honest was more like crawling; hands were definitely used), going down was ten times worse. And the worst part was that most of those staircases were more or less vertical slopes. Some of the towers had second floors, which I flat out refused to go see, due to the fact that I would then have to go back down those staircases. You can only tempt fate for so long before it topples you down those things. I can't even imagine having to go up and down those as a soldier carrying more than a small day bag.... It was a pretty insane experience. Beautiful, especially because we got lucky and had some amazing weather, but insane.

On the upside, although I went super slowly and stopped a ton (those hills and stairs were mad challenging for my unfit self), I was not the last person to finish! In fact, we had all regrouped at the last tower on the Wall, waited, and finally went down to the base to wait for Wang laoshi, who showed up twenty minutes later. I'm not even sure how he got so far behind the group, considering he is always outpacing us when we go on field trips. Overall, visiting 長城 was a great experience, although my calves still feel it whenever I walk down stairs. And because Saturday was Halloween, even though we didn't get back to campus until about 8pm, we still dressed up and went out that night (and didn't get back to campus until 6am). It was my first time going to 三里屯 (Sānlǐtún), the foreigner's part of town. In my opinion? It was wayy too crowded to be particularly enjoyable. It might just have been the fact that everyone was out partying on Halloween (and there were some really good costumes there), but there were so many people in the particular club we went to that dancing was inherently less fun. And it cost more to get in to that club than it does in Wudaokou (the area my university is located) 50元 may have been reasonable for my friends who drink, due to the open bar access, but for me it equaled a damn expensive glass of (warm) water. I will probably pass the next time my friends go out there.

Anyways, that's all for this week! Hope you all had a fun Halloween weekend, and until next time!

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Photos

萬聖節快樂！
Wànshèngjié kuàilè - Happy Halloween!

Reading the paper
We went to one of the major parks in Beijing Friday morning, and they had the daily paper posted in cases along this wall. Lots of elderly people, standing and reading the paper!

Giant rubber ducks in the pond
Because why not?

不到長城非好漢
Bù dào chángchéng fēi hǎohàn
"If you fail to reach the Great Wall, you are not a man"
Written in Mao's handwriting, which is considered to be the very best (not so sure I believe that...)

With Jude
And his stupid tourist hat...
Photo cred. Wang laoshi