Lightning on the Great Wall

Thursday June 17, 2010

The pickup for the Great Wall tour came earlier than we expected but we grabbed some rain gear and left with the driver of the tour. We were the first picked up and the last dropped off so it turned out to be a long day. The van was an F350 diesel Ford (sure you all wanted to know that) and the other people were, 1 Australian, 2 German women, 4 Canadians and 5 Chinese people. I was supposed to take 3 hours to get there but it took at least 5. This didn't bother Jake and I but some of the others were getting torqued about the delays. The driver was trying to hook up with another driver who did not know the way there, but eventually he found out. Australian is angry, German woman is angry, Canadians are impatient, etc. It made us realize that we have not been around tourists for 2 weeks, only the calm, tolerant Chinese so this was new (yuk). Anyway, we stopped for a quick lunch, which the German woman bitched about, and started hiking.

I forgot to mention that it was raining really good all the way there. There was some good lightning strikes and thunder as well, so we were thinking they might call it off, but we remembered we were in China. So off we went in the downpour and lightning and thunder. It was actually pretty powerful climbing up the green mountains with all this booming around us. We did not see any signs of greasepots so we assumed we would be ok. We got to the wall in 45 minutes or so and it of course was spectacular. For some reason I thought it would be in rough shape, but for the most part, it is in very good shape. There are sections that are little more than a rubble walkway with the walls gone on either side, but the wall itself is in pretty good shape. The watchtowers in this part of the wall are really close together compared to the other sections of the wall, so it was fun to hike and then take shelter from the rain in a watchtower. Most of the watchtowers have no roofs but a few were pretty dry with roofs, so we took breaks in those. It turned into one of those hikes where you get soaked through and it doesn't matter any more. We hiked west for an hour and a half and then turned around and hiked back. Some of the sections have very, I mean very steep stairs. There was one watchtower with a makeshift bed and sleeping bag which may have belonged to one of the old women that try to sell souvenirs on the wall. These are some tough women up here.

So back to the trail off the wall, soaked to the bone and cold, when Jake spotted a sign that someone was selling coffee, which sounded great, so we stopped and drank coffee and chatted with the couple that ran the trailside concession. They said they do a big business in renting tents and sleeping gear to college kids who hike up and sleep on the wall. For 400RMB (about $60.00) they take the equipment up as well as water, food and beer, and set everything up for you. They then haul up and cook breakfast for you as well. Remember this is a lot of money in China and a cheap trip for a tourist so it is a good business for them.

Anyway, we had tea and beer, then went back on the bus to Beijing. It was like a bus full of wet dogs. Everybody fell asleep from the wet and cold, except the driver who did not hike. Jake set up a last night out with his classmates so he dropped me off, changed into dry clothes and took off. I am content to stay in the hostel and go to sleep.