野长城 2

What follows is my account of the finding of the wild Great Wall of China. This is a very special place of power and lives in my mind along with the most mystical spots I have ever been. It is one of the seven wonders of the world. The adventure began when my friend Ying Qing quietly knocked on the door to my office. She then told me that her friend the tour guide (who I had met on the evening of the opening ceremony at Peng Gong's house and is totally gorgeous) was going to the wild part of the great wall and was inviting me to come. My heart skipped a couple beats, and, upon my recovery, told her I wasn't sure but would contact her friend and find out more. On my way home, I decided I was going, no matter what. I called the lovely Miss Zhang Bei (张蓓) and she said meet tomorrow at the subway station, wear "sport" shoes and bring food and water. The next morning, we were on our way. We took a taxi to the subway, the subway to the bus station, a bus to the country, and then rented a mini-van to take us to a small village near the wall, where we would stay at a farmer's house. When we got there, the enchantment began. It was a very tiny village, the likes of which I had never before seen. Old stone houses, animals, gardens, and courtyards, all surrounded by fields and mountains. I had somehow stumbled into the real life set of Lord of the Rings. Over the next couple days, this analogy would prove more and more apt.

The "farmer's house" was not what I had imagined. It was actually more of a "guest house," or even hotel. It was quite plush given our location, with nice little rooms adorned by beautiful photos of the Great Wall covered in snow, TV's, comfy beds, and a communal shower room with solar hot water. They had a wonderful little courtyard, a big kitchen with which they would prepare a sumptuous dinner for us, cold beer from an earthen cellar, and home made bai jiu (白酒, literally "white liquor," the Chinese fire water that has fueled many a drunken escapade in the past. I had sworn off it until I got a taste of the farmer's home brew. I wound up buying two bottles of it and taking it with me...)

Some scenes from the village:




In the background are our rooms. In the foreground, you can see a tank of fish that they kept, one of which we ate for dinner!


And we're off! Scenes from day one:










The first day was pretty easy. I carried a walking stick that looked like a wizard's staff. Two old men I encountered along the way asked me where I had gotten it (a man in the village loaned it to me), declaring it to be a special "lion's head stick." We found the wall, had a picnic, then then climbed up and started exploring. It's hard to describe how amazing this place is. It is magical views, crumbling staircases, haunted watchtowers, dark paths through dank shrubbery, sheer cliffs, and stone roads built high in the sky, all mixed together. Around each turn is something new and even more fascinating. They maintained a network of intervisible signal towers on distant peaks, using dried wolf dung to start bonfires in order to send messages along the wall (sound familiar?). Little did I know that the relative ease with which we tackled the first section would lull us into a false sense of security with regard to the trials that awaited us on the second day...

That night, we enjoyed being at the village. We talked with a photographer who lived in this little place, making his living off imagery of the wall (he showed us his very impressive collection), ate, drank and made merry. Later, Bei and I would lie on the roof and stare at the stars. It was my first experience of this kind in China, being out in nature, and it made a big impression on me. I fell in love.

Photographers on the roof, getting shots of the wall in the fading sunlight.


Dinner time. When you order a chicken, you get the WHOLE chicken.


We drank bai jiu made in these jars...

Stored in this cellar:


And dispensed from these taps, which emerged from a garden behind the dinner table.


Is she hot or what?


The next day, we set off for good from our little home, bound for the Eastern section of the wall. Our day got off to an interesting start when the guy who liked my lions head staff the previous day tried to charge us to use the ladder we used for free the day before. Two yuan each (about 30 cents). But, deciding that we could not pay the man, based on principle, we climbed up a little wall instead of using his stupid ladder (he was not pleased). And up we went. Our destination: the highest watchtower on the wall, at about 1300 meters. Right away, it was steep and sketchy. This was no cakewalk and there were plenty of you-fall-you-die places. A foreigner was killed there in the previous year. Strangely, the Chinese seemed much less concerned than I, frequently posing for photos in the places I felt should be quickly navigated in order to get out of danger. In one spot, I saw a guy (from another group) nearly slip off a 100 foot cliff when he casually stepped to the sandy brink to have his photo taken. It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. I felt sure that I was going to witness a grisly plunge onto rocks, but it never happened.

Day two found us surrounded by cliffs:



This is where I expected to see someone plunge to their death at any minute. People seemed completely oblivious to the precipice inches away as they snapped photo after photo.


The first part of day two, already covered. You can see the village where we stayed in the background, far below.


This is the part where Lily thought we should think of something to say to each other, before we died:

In the first really dangerous part, we were confronted with a section that required a bit of bouldering to navigate a cliff around which the wall had been built. Before we went up, Lily, Bei's cousin, suggested that in case we die, we should all think of something nice to say to each other, before the end. We all laughed, a little nervously. The most dangerous part, I thought, was a rusty metal ladder that had been arranged over a 50 footer. The bottom anchors of the ladder had pulled out of the rock and were dangling over thin air. The top of the ladder had broken as a result of the bottom coming out, and had been repaired with bailing wire. Furthermore, it was necessary to bust a couple moves over the cliff just to get a foot on the bottom rung. I was gripped with fear. I went up the ladder as quickly as possible, my heart thumping. To my utter and complete horror, my companions were stopping on the ladder for pictures: one foot on, one foot off, "look Ma, no hands!" etc. When we finally moved on, I was not without a considerable sense of relief.

The infamous ladder. You can just make out the bottom anchors, dangling over the cliff.

For me, it was get up and off that ladder as soon as possible.

For Bei, no problem! Check out the bailing wire:



We finally made it to the watch tower, where we had a picnic. At this point, we were getting a wee bit low on water, and I was a little concerned, because it was hot, sunny and I was damn thirsty, already not drinking as much as I would have liked. To my astonishment, some old guy had carried coolers up to this tower filled with ice cream and beer which he was selling to the hikers!! A beer never tasted so good.

Picnic in the guard tower:


At this point, we had done the hardest part of the wall, but the worst was not behind us. I was pretty hurting and was looking forward to getting off the mountain and buying a cold drink. Ahead could be seen the cable car that would take us quickly down to a fleet of mini-vans waiting to carry us away to food, beer and comfort. Alas, it was not to be. We encountered a place with a dirt trail bearing off to a cliff infested area on our right, into uncharted territory. A brief conversation ensued, followed by a couple phone calls. I was informed that we were going to take the trail, in order to avoid buying tickets for the section of wall near the cable car. Supposedly, this trail would somehow lead around the ticket gate and back to the wall. Personally, I was in favor of staying on the wall and buying the tickets. After descending to the point where impassable cliffs blocked the route back to the wall, it was readily apparent that we were not going in the right direction for the cable car and were in fact getting deeper and deeper into the steeps. I cast my vote to go back up the trail, back to the wall. Another conversation in Chinese, and more phone calls. I was informed that we would continue down the trail: so be it. I was resigned to my fate. Oh! had I only stated my case a little stronger. The trail quickly became a hellish nightmare of muddy cliffs. In some sections, some good samaritan had lashed sticks together along the edge of the trail in a sort of rudimentary railing attached to rotting roots. This was our only security from tumbling over the edge into thorns and boulders far below. It was not fun. And we had no idea where we would end up. Everyone was hurting and thirsty. I was filthy dirty, from head to foot, and soaked in sweat. Not a single photo was taken on that trail!! When we finally got to the bottom, we found ourselves in a small town dominated by massive fish tanks built into a river, and fish restaurants. It was like Shangri-La. There was a sign saying that foreigners were not allowed on the trail because it was too dangerous. Why couldn't they have put that sign on the TOP of the trail?

The fish tank town:


And that was that. I had to save the top of the wall camp out for next time. It was definitely the best thing I have ever done in China. Better than all my previous trips combined. I made a promise to return to this place, and I eagerly look forward to my next visit. But the best part of trip was meeting Bei: