It's the one thing that you just have to do in China.
It's on the logo for the Chinese government. It's on the hats the soldiers wear. It's even on your tourist visa.
It's the Great Wall. And we had decided to take a tour from our hostel.
The bus left at such an ungodly hour I can't even remember, but its was probably 7 AM. I'll admit to being a little nervous: a 15 passenger van, no seatbelts, Chinese-style driving, and a trip into the mountains. But there was no stopping us, we had to climb the wall. The bus picked up several people from other hostels, with the person sitting next to me actually coming from a town in Oklahoma I once lived in. The trip took two hours, and the van nearly hit a dog, but eventually we arrived. The guide gave us a quick explanation of the history, told us the routes, gave us our tickets and told us to be back for our included lunch.
We took a ski-lift up. You so often hear about how amazing the wall is (and it is), but the countryside is astonishing too. Atop a mountain, you can see a huge distance. When we got to the wall, we started walking. The section we were on was restored, and there were people, dressed in fake army fatigues, selling all manor of things on the wall (tip: stock up on everything first. They're the only source of food or water up there, and they will not budge too much on the prices. Although, in all fairness, you're not likely to pay more than you would in Hong Kong or anywhere else anyway).
The walk becomes steep quickly, and we were eventually crawling up sets of stairs, stopping frequently to catch our breath. We eventually got to a sign proclaiming the end of the area accessible to tourists. Beyond it, unrestored wall, replete with crumbling guard towers, trees growing into the rocks, and foolhardy tourists who go past the sign.
We backtracked and went the other way. An interesting thing about the wall was the presence of tourists who'd occasionally strike up a conversation. It's always interesting to hear what brings people from places like the US (where most of the really talkative people seem to come from ) to the top of a stone wall across the planet. As I said, the views are beautiful, and one can see the wall snaking off along the hills, far into the distance beyond.....
One reason that we chose this particular section of the wall (Mutianyu), was that it included a real attraction: a toboggan ride back down! This was every bit as exciting as we'd imagine: and how often do you get the chance to toboggan down the side of the Great Wall? When we got to the bottom, we did some souvenir shopping. The people at these stalls were the most aggressive I've seen, and I was actually cornered into a stall. The funniest part, though, is that once you do agree on a price, all of the tension evaporates, and everyone smiles again. You have to remember, on the one hand, it's not personal about you, it's just business; on the other, however, it's personal for the shopkeeper, who depends on that money for their income.
After some westernized Chinese food, we took the 2 hour drive back to town. Totally exhausted, we spent much of the afternoon watching CCTV, the state-run broadcaster, in English. I actually really like CCTV, it reminds me a bit of watching PBS, with no commercials and a less sensationalistic attitude than the news media at home.
The last real thing on our Beijing list was Peking Duck, and the hostel recommended a place nearby. No English was spoken, and for some reason I'd become a little sheepish with the Mandarin, but soon enough a massive amount of duck, pancakes, sauce, rice, and dressings for the duck (pickled carrots and cucumbers etc) appeared. This probably ties with that meal in Shanghai for the best we had in China, and definitely one of the best I've ever had.
No comments:
Post a Comment