The Great Wall

Day 92

Thanks goes to Chris for allowing us stinky and gross ultimate players to stay at his place. Wake up call was 8 in the morning because this was the day that we were going to go to the Great Wall of China. I remember going four years ago in July and just being bombarded by other tourists, vendors, and being attacked by the evil smog monster. This time I had the privilege of going in April, not being in a tour group, and having friends tell us where to go. So we departed for the HoJiankou area of the Great Wall, where we would be required to hike about 2 hours to reach the wall. We planned to arrive at Jiankou around 10ish and the reach the wall around 12 and then spend a good amount of time on the wall. The weather was perfect, but our plans weren’t. We had to detour form our original plan due to some kind of kite festival and so had to back track and head to a different part of the hike. We stopped for some lunch before the big hike, which was a big mistake. We ordered multiple dishes and only a couple came. Once again, multiple does not equal a couple. And those couple took over an hour to arrive. We lost about and hour and a half of hiking time and that’s not what we wanted. The cool thing about hiking to the wall was that there were these red signs written in Chinese red paint that helped us know where to go. The uncool thing was that the path eventually led us to a cliff. Not the type of cliff that you could fall off of, but more of one that you fall up. Facing this cliff, we were in need of a scout, so Milan volunteered and Jon and I followed.

So up we went the mountain. The cool thing was that it was clear we weren’t the first people to make this climb. There were bottled water’s hanging on branches which basicall marked the path for us and saved our lives. Hanging onto the smallest cracks of rocks, roots of trees and shrubs and crawling our way to the top of the ridge, only to find that we have not reached the wall yet. As we climbed up the ridge, the rest of our party decided to turn back because it would have been just too difficult for some of them and it was a better idea if they just headed back to the bottom. With that information in hand, Milan, Jon and I pondered on our next move. There was no way that we would be able to go back the way we came because that meant immediate death; and none of us were really desiring that at the moment. Onward we went following the ridge and using our inner mountain man to find a safer way down. We didn’t die, but we certainly did get dirty. Baseball slide was the method of choice and to a path we made it. We now were at a crossroads, either turn left and continue towards the wall, or turn right catch up with our friends at the bottom. After abandoning our friends an hour ago, we felt like it was a more noble thing to see them at the bottom. Right ward we went and in about 5 minutes we see our friends coming up our way! REUNITED AGAIN!!! So we turned back around and headed towards the wall. This area of the wall is one area that hasn’t been redone or retouched in the same way that some of the other areas have been done. We were alone on the wall and it was awesome. The sun was shining and the sky was pure blue. We traversed on the wall for about 2 hours towards Mutianyu (an area of the wall that has been redone for tourists). Phil used his panda charm and got us a ride on the gondola down and that was the wall! It was cool because Mutianyu was where I was my first time and to see the area without the tourists or the vendors was a nice change of pace. So enjoy the pictures!