Ever since I saw Mulan as a child (yes, the Disney movie, and yes, I know), I’ve wanted to see the Great Wall of China. When you think of China, you think of the Great Wall (and pandas), especially when coming from a Western perspective. While I’ve discussed my mixed feelings towards China, and the country is obviously much, much more, the Great Wall was a highlight of my trip. It’s also the story I tell people when they ask about China: the experience of getting there, being on the Wall, and getting back all sum up the confusion, complexity, stress, pollution, crowds, beauty, history and culture of China.
It was our last day of work, and we were having a celebratory lunch with our colleagues when suddenly they decided it was our last chance to go see the Great Wall. One minute, we were eating Peking duck, and the next minute, we were racing back to our rooms to get ready in twenty minutes.
As was typical in China, I can’t imagine trying to get to the Great Wall by myself, without our translator and her driver (again, I know). I’m sure it’s possible, but the language barrier is so strong, I’m not even sure I could do it without a tour. I consider myself a fairly savvy traveler.
After about an hour-long drive out of Beijing (I had no idea it was so close to Beijing…I didn’t know much in China), we arrived and got in a long line for a tram up to the most popular section of the Wall.
Our first twenty minutes on the Wall were crowded, and stressful, and full of snapshots of us and all around us. I heard about six tours giving the spiel of the history of the Wall. From eavesdropping on these tours, I learned that, when someone died while they were building the Great Wall, from being overworked, they were merely thrown into the Wall, meaning we were, according to legend, standing on a graveyard.
Nice. And not surprising, given the treatment we had seen of the people in China firsthand.
I also learned that there are many other sections of the Wall to visit, that are less touristy, and that the Wall does not actually span the entire country, as there are plenty of mountain ranges to help protect the country. It’s also not visible from space (bummer!) and was almost immediately breached.
While it was fun to listen to these tours, I was very happy we were able to hike a little ways away from the crowds and tours, and it was there that I fully realized I was standing on the Great Wall of China. It felt utterly surreal. I definitely may have cried a little bit.
Then, it started to rain. I was glad that the heavy air wasn’t just smog, but also contained water, because it looked pretty gross when I thought it was all smog. I, of course, ended up way behind the group, taking pictures and savoring, so I had to run down the steep, slippery stones to catch up. It was a moment of total joy, laughing to myself as I slid down the Wall.
We were in the rain for awhile, as we’d taken a weird route, the long way, which we didn’t realize (again, typical), and when we finally got off the Wall, the area was abandoned.
Except for two men selling ice cream, which of course we had to buy.
The rain was torrential now, and to our dismay, our translator informed us we had exited a spot on the wall that was about two miles away from our car, waiting to take us back to Beijing. We convinced the ice cream men to give us a ride (which they wouldn’t do without a price, of course) and we drove the muddy, half-flooded roads back to our car. It was a terrifying twenty minutes, as cars all around us were stuck in the mud, crashing into each other, and at one point I flew from the back of the van to the front. No seat belts, yo.
We did make it back safely to our warm car, and drove away from the chaos. We were soaked, freezing, relieved, giddy, in awe, stressed, and exhausted.
(sorry for the overload of photos! I just couldn’t narrow them down more!)
Today I am linking up with Bonnie, Tina and Melanie for Travel Tuesday, one of my favorite blogger link-ups!
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