The Great Wall

We were able to hike a lesser-known section of the Great Wall of China known as Jinshanling (approximately 3 hours north of Beijing). The wall stretches from the sea in the east to its crumbling finale in the Gobi desert- almost 4,000 miles long. The wall was not the work of just one dynasty. It started in the 7th century BC, but under the first emperor of the Qin dynasty building really took off. The emperor, Qinshu Huangdi, threaded together the existing ramparts, erected watchtowers, and constructed beacons on the fortification to alert the capital of China. The purpose of the wall was to keep the hostile tribesmen of the north out of China, which failed spectacularly (most notably with the incursions that established the Jin, Yuan, and Qing dynasties.

Our 3-hour hike was majestic in every way. We followed China's greatest monument through various stages of repair; from freshly restored to thoroughly crumbling, over steep peaks and gentle flats, and through patches of wilderness and rugged farmland, with two dozen watchtowers along the way.

                                                                                

There was a light rain on our hike so there were barely any people, we passed maybe 3 people an hour. The higher we climbed the more fog would roll in over the wall, covering everything in a thick mist. The view was beautiful and it was entertaining to have a constantly changing path- one minute we would be climbing 2 foot stairs and the next we would be pulling ourselves up a muddy crumbling slope.

Later that night we spent the night at a hostel right next to the Great Wall. We had a home-cooked traditional Chinese meal. Our room was big but "rugged," with bean pillows, cat smells (they had 3 cats), and bed posts that said Happy Birthday. We were lucky though because we had Western-style toilets and the girls next to us had squatters. We played games for awhile and David became good friends with the old grandma in the house. We asked our guide if it would be ok to call her nainai (grandma) but she told us to call her aiyi instead. It means aunt but it could be used as a respectful term for an older women. She got super excited when David said, "Ni hao aiyi" for the rest of the night. :)

Tomorrow we are heading back to Beijing to take a 13 hour sleeper train to Xi'an, which has been the national capital of 11 dynasties and is home to the Terracotta warriors.

Zai-jian!

D and K