July 30
When I was little my Papa always asked me, “Do you have a dry pair of socks?” Most parents reserve this question to trips to the lake, an amusement park with water rides, or trips downtown where one finds temptingly cool water features. Not my Papa, he asked before we went to my brother’s baseball games, or the playground, and probably even the grocery store. I blame this entirely on the Marine Corps (Oorah!), and learned to just keep multiple sets of clothes, not just socks, in a car. The point dear reader is that this past Saturday I went hiking up to the Great Wall, bringing with me a dry pair of socks and clothes. It was not raining when I left, and though the weather called for precipitation, I figured I was either going to be sweaty or soaked. Well it did start misting about twenty minutes into the four or five hours hike (Yippee!), and I was the only one with a fully dry kit to change into – except I neglected shoes! So there I am, nice and dry with the option of putting my dry socks into my wet boots or my bare, pruney feet into those wet boots. I am grieved to report that I only brought ONE pair of dry socks, so in went my poor, abused feet. Sorry, Papa, I tried! Do I still get a cookie, or maybe some petit fours from that bakery in Ferguson?
The hike itself I did with a local group called The Beijing Hikers. They call it Jiankou to Mutianyu Great Wall, and rate it at a difficulty level of 4 out of 5. The hike is approximately 9km or 5/6 miles with a total ascent of 451 meters and total descent of 724 meters. We arrived at the trailhead at 9:30am and started hiking around 9:45am. The Beijing Hikers provided hiking poles, raincoats, extra water, and snacks to all hikers, and that hiking pole definitely came in handy a few times. The approximate time to complete the hike is listed at 4 hours, and I stopped hiking around 2pm so I was spot on pace! I would also like to say that though I was not the first person by any stretch to finish the hike, I was also not the last; and I think a few people cheated and took the chair lift down.
We start off in the forest on an overgrown goat trail that gets progressively steeper and steeper, until you hit switchback city with more than a few rock scrambles. I freely admit to bringing up the rear on this portion of the hike – yep, too intense for my poor, decrepit 24 year old body. This took somewhere around an hour, and the trail ends at the General’s Tower, which means it is the highest point on the Great Wall in the vicinity. This was so that the general could survey all of the surrounding land, and in no way was a means of stroking his ego or compensating for a deficiency. To get into the General’s Tower you get to climb up one of those wooden ladders like Disney drew in Mulan. We take a rest break here, and my legs were happy for it. Unfortunately, because of the rain (I did mention it started misting rain about 15-20 minutes into this hike right?) once I stopped moving my body temperature dropped about 10 degrees and I started steaming. SIGH, no rest for the weary it seems.
Back on my feet, and out into the mist, I arrive on an un-restored section of the Great Wall. It has trees, shrubs, and other green plants growing out of it, on it, and around it. Some parts of the wall have crumbled and fallen off the 20 or 30 feet into the forest below, making that narrow little strip that’s left to walk upon really exciting. The other really fun part about walking on the un-restored Great Wall is lack of stairs, just worn smooth paving stones no longer properly aligned are available for you to amble across on inclining or declining slopes (raining on this parade – I think not, in fact, in went up a few notches!). All this seems well worth it when I pause to take a rest, and realize no one else is around. I am standing alone in the mist on a manmade legend, the centuries old forest at my feet, and maybe my own insignificance in the world should be impressed upon me, but instead I am filled with awe as my sense are assaulted and joy in my existence. I can hear the birds in the trees; feel the rain on my skin; smell the dirt under my boots; taste the fresh air; but I cannot see more than ten feet into the mist, just enough to see the drop from the end of the wall down into the forest. Exhilaration rose in me because though I am but a blip, here one moment and gone the next, I stood and witnessed the permanence of that forest.
Pushing on, I found our leader waiting for me and the rear guard since we were taking a detour through the forest. The rain had made the next section of the wall to treacherous for use to climb. Treacherous it might have been, but probably dryer as well. Going into the forest I was wet, coming out I was soaked and my shoes squelched. Sighing to myself, I figured once I hit the tourist/restored section of the Great Wall that I only had an hour left in the hike. My feet could survive that right? So, on I went, slipping on stones, clambering over pitfalls, and passing through crumbling watchtowers until I walked between two trees spilling over the path to see a vender’s stand with an old Chinese man hawking an “I Climbed the Great Wall” T-shirt to this behemoth of a tourist (I bet he was Norwegian). This was one of those surreal moments were I involuntarily take a step back into the trees, and the forward again out of the trees just to make sure I have not found a Narnia Wardrobe.
The above is the Mutianyu Tourist area map of the Great Wall; bad map I know, but you could Google it yourself. In the upper left corner is a little bit of red continuing on from the tourist section that is where I hike in from. Continue following the line of the Great Wall right and the tower six from the far right (the last tower with a black line descending from it) is where I turned off and climbed down to the car park and the bus. I should point out that this map is wildly deceiving and most of the tourist section is stairs not slopes. There has to be more than 1,000 stairs from end to end because I traveled mostly “down stairs” and it took me about one and a half hours at a steady pace with few stops. Despite the rough beginning of my hike, I definitely prefer that to a never-ending stair case. I did snag a few self-portraits of myself by setting the camera on a timer just to have visual proof I did this.
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| See the Wall to the Right, that narrow little strip is all that is left to walk on! |
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| Hanging red tags guided those of us outside the pack. |
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| A good stretch of the un-restored Great Wall. |
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| But, you can see where it is starting to crumble. |
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| Self-Portrait Time |
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| I think I like this one best. |
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| I never did manage to get a shot without something blurred in the foreground. |
The Beijing Hikers provided lunch at a nearby locally owned Chinese restaurant. Superb food, and cold beer! My overall experience with them was stellar though I was on my own and the weather was not the best. They offer hikes of all levels, and not all go to the Great Wall. I recommend checking them out to anyone headed off to Beijing as something fun to do outside of the city.
This is the link to the hike I went on, but do explore the rest of the site:
http://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/367/jiankou-to-mutianyu-great-wall-2/
One thing to look at is the Immortal Valley Loop hike which depending on the weather I am planning on participating in.
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