The Great Wall Hike

There is an old Chinese expression that runs something like this (first in Chinese, then English): "Bu dao chang cheng fei hao han"-- "He who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true man." Well, after my 10 km trek from Jinshanling to Simitai on one of the most remote, treacherous and breathtaking sections of the Great Wall on 7/12/10, I can say, in Chinese, that I am a "hao han"--a "true man." But--barely. Read on and you will see what I mean.

Planning the Great Wall Climb

My friend Gil, with whom I had been travelling in China for a week before our Great Wall journey, suggested that we not take either the easy/traditional Great Wall hike (Badaling), nor the more precipitous but still nicely restored section at Mutianyu, but that we go further afield for an unforgettable adventure. We recruited a young American couple to join us (Jeff and Suzanne) and off we went to a section of the Wall at Jinshanling, about 120 KM Northeast of Beijing. What I had only learned a few days previously was that Jeff and Suzanne, about 30 years old, were both fitness buffs. Jeff had the distinction of having been the stroke for the # 1 boat on the University of Washington crew team a few years back while Suzanne is a willowly and rangy brunette of impressive athletic abilities. Gulp. My friend Gil, a year younger than I, is also in top shape, having the most recent distinction of winning a set from the # 9 tennis player from Barbados. Well, that might not sound like much to Rafael Nadal-lovers, but when you put this crew together for a Great Wall hike, you soon see that you are utterly outclassed in the conditioning department--even though I keep up a pretty strict workout regimen.

My task in preparing for this trek was to recruit a cab driver (we were staying near the Beijing Airport) from the highways of Beijing, rather than those that hung around our hotel (because they would charge more), and explain to him in Chinese what we wanted to do for the day. I managed to do this, having written it down neatly in Chinese, and I secured a cab for 800 RMB for the day (about $130). He would take us to Jinshanling, wait around while we hiked the section of the Wall, take us to the Ming tombs (ultimately we didn't have time for this), return us to our hotel to pick up luggage, and then take us to our new hotel in downtown Beijing. As it turned out, the new hotel had given away our rooms, and we had to search far and wide to find an 11:00 p.m. replacement hotel in Beijing when we were exhausted from the day on the Wall. But that isn't really the story I want to write about.

Getting to the Wall

We arrived late (around 1:00 p.m.) at the Jinshanling section. Jeff and Suzanne were staying in downtown Beijing, and the traffic was so bad they took the subway to the airport and then secured a cab to get them to our hotel. The long cab ride to Jinshanling followed. Upon arriving, we studied the map that was posted of the section of the wall between Jinshanling and Simatai. It was about 10 KM in length, and we decided we would try an all-out assault on the Beijing Watching Tower, the highest point on the hike and the tower that divides the Simitai from the Jinshanling portion of the wall. We were warned in no uncertain terms by the locals that it was not possible to get to the Watching Tower; the condition of the Wall wouldn't permit it. Of course, this was just the fuel that my intrepid companions needed for an all-out assault on the high place. I, of course, wanted to be much more 'reasonable.'

After eating a light meal at the base of Jinshanling, we took the cable car to the Wall. The cable car looked like it had been built in the 1940s and not repaired since. It creaked and groaned as it took us in our individual basket/cars high over the outstretched trees to the monument itself. We began our hike about 2:00 p.m., heading West along this marvel of technology and wonder of the ancient and modern world.

What we soon discovered was that this section of the Wall was not at all well-maintained, that it was steep beyond belief at points, that at times we had to climb and let down ladders from the watch tower to the path, and that chips of steps, other rocks, mingled with sand and grit, made walking treacherous. We were fortunate that the day was only about 80 degrees (cool for Beijing area), but the humidity was so high that we soon were all drenched. The handkerchiefs to wipe our brows soon became as wet as the shirts and pants we were wearing.

Setting Out

As we set out in a Westerly direction from Jinshanling, three realities confronted us. First were the seemingly endless number of hawkers of water and other items. These only accompanied us for about the first 4 KM, but they were bothersome nevertheless. Their favorite tactic was to come up to us with a water bottle in their hand and say, "Lei.." When asked by others what it meant, I told them that the hawkers were trying to tell us we looked exhausted. Second, for the first 2 or 3 KM there were several other walkers, mostly from China but several from European countries. We also wanted to get beyond all these folk. Finally, in a long early stretch of the Wall, we ran into a work crew with numerous donkeys on the Wall itself. They were repairing some particularly treacherous parts and we had to skirt these workers and their burros without getting kicked halfway to Mongolia in the process.

So, on we went. I had an early mishap as I slipped on the one of the glazed rocks. I went down pretty hard, twisting my right (good) knee in the process, but I gamely got up and continued. Of course. You can't wimp out on these athletes! After we left the workers in the dust, we faced the spectacle of tower after tower, with smaller "sub towers" along the way. Most of the towers were spaced quite far from each other, so there was little protection against the heat. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the Wall was enveloped in a deep and nearly impenetrable pall of smog, allowing visibility only of perhaps 400 meters. Thus, the sun couldn't shine through and do its damage on us....

The ups and downs of the climb made me wonder if there was an "ADA-compliant" ramp for all of this, but I only mused this thought to myself. I couldn't help noting, however, as we continued, that much of the Wall didn't have a rail/barrier to it. One could easily pitch off of it and plunge 20 or 30 feet down to the trees and rocks below. Then, as we went on, the climbing began. Often it would take 200-300 steps of upward climbing to get to a tower. At times the steps, worn and jagged as they were, were so steep that you had to, as it were, "climb" the wall, using all fours to clamber up the stairs. Going down after a significant climb was also fraught with considerable dangers, since loose stones, missing bricks and other features made it a constant challenge. Often you had to hang onto the wall barrier, when it existed, as you lowered yourself to the next level.

The Great Wall hike between Jinshanling and the beginning of the Simitai section has as many ups and downs as a smitten teen-ager's heart. At times when the sweat was running off my body in ringlets (reminiscent of Tommy Smothers' characterization of sweat pouring off John Henry in "gimlets"), I would just pause and consider the daunting climb before me. Once when I was pausing, I heard Jeff behind me, deciding that he wanted to "run" up the 200 or 300 steps to the next tower. So, up he went, chugging past me with the energy that made him one of the best conditioned crew men in the country a few years ago.

Finishing the Hike

Though most guide books tell you to take all day on the Jinshanling portion and tell you also that you probably cannot make it to the Beijing Watch Tower, we, of course, wanted to do it all in three hours, making it to the big tower in the process. Once we got close to the tower, about two or three KM distant, we had long left in the dust any other hikers and the seemingly omnipresent hawkers. We were out by ourselves in such seeming isolation that it led to a rush of exhilaration in all of us. No one was out there as we were in the section of the Wall that was supposed either to be closed or nearly inaccessible. Jeff, who was leading our group, announced proudly that he had to break through some cobwebs to get to the section of the Wall. I dryly remarked that I had seen a pristine sign stating "Genghis was here." So we continued on what was now, for me, the most grueling hike of my life. Perhaps I could have sprung up the walk when younger; but we were the only four "out there" that day.

After a particular precipitous climb, we made it to one tower before the "Wangjing" or "Beijing Watch" tower. My knee was beginning to throb, my garments were soaked, I was covered with a thin film of dust, the grit was beginning to cover every part of my body, and I decided I was going to wait at this penultimate tower while my three friends pressed on to the peak--Wangjing. So, they had the pleasure/glory of having made it "all the way to the top." From the Wangjing they said they could easily have walked to the restored section of the wall at Simitai. I, like Moses on Mount Nebo however, only "saw" the promised land in the distance, deciding I needed to catch my breath while they went on.

It was a good thing that I did. Upon their return to pick me up at Fairy Tower (I think that was its name), we realized that it was already after 4:00 p.m., and that we had told our cabbie that we would return by 5:00. No way would we be able to retrace our steps along the treacherous paths and get down to the cab by 5:00. In addition, the cable car would probably be closing soon, thus requiring us to find a path down from the Wall to the parking area. So, we pressed on, with my three companions bounding down the Wall as if they were deer, while I struggled step by step down the shale-like path. At times we walked together; at times we had to separate because of the narrowness of the path. Finally, we reached the point where the donkeys had been previously, and we found a path down to the parking lot. Coming up the path were numerous other donkeys laden with bricks (the night shift?), and so the path down was almost as slow as the path up would have been.

Finishing the Day

I don't know who was more overjoyed, our cabbie or me, when we saw each other from a distance at about 5:45 p.m. While my friends were buying beers, with one for me, I hastened to our car to make sure that our driver was still "on" with the program. He was. After wringing out our clothes (Jeff was particularly poignant as he took off his shirt, wrung it out, and saw a steady stream of water bursting from the shirt), we clambered into the cab for the long trip back to Beijing. We were ready for food, for a relaxing dinner, for a good shower. As it happened, we were able to get none of the above, principally because the cabbie couldn't drive to our new hotel (the roads in Beijing, he said, were too narrow) and when we walked several blocks from the main road, in the Qianmen District, to the hotel, we were told that the room had been given away because we were "late." Thus, we had to hail another cab, which took us to a hotel near the "Beijing zhan" (train station). He didn't know how to find it and, to make matters worse, he got caught in the almost impenetrable traffic around the train station at 10:30 p.m., and we didn't get to our new hotel until 11:00 p.m. Never did train station (where we ended up eating) food taste so good....

Conclusion

I now can understand how the Chinese would characterize a trek on the Wall as the thing that makes a "true man." For much of the hike I felt like anything but a man--exhausted, vulnerable, aching, slipping, glasses alternatively fogged and dripping, thirsty, trying to fend off the hawkers as I gamely trekked on, etc. But when we finally relaxed at about 11:30 that night, I could look back on the day with a smile. Yes, I was now a "true" man, even though I didn't make it to the last and highest tower on the Wall. Perhaps that awaits me in the future. But the day was both exhausting and exhilarating--which, come to think of it, are the words I use now to describe my entire China trip.

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