Once upon a week in China part 4: Climbing the Great Wall of China
November 14, 2005 | 12:00am
Author's note: The following story is reconstructed from notes
made by the author who managed to survive a six-day trip to three major cities
in China, and has returned home to tell the tale.
"No, you cannot walk out of the wall into Mongolia. You cannot even see Mongolia from our section of the Great Wall, it's too far," our tourist guide Bill ("Kill" Bill, I called him) was saying as our bus was making its way north from the Long Di Superior Jade Gallery, Beijing, into the countryside.
Bummer. I turned away from the guide and looked out of the bus window into the Chinese countryside.
The scenery changed dramatically just ten minutes after leaving downtown Beijing for Yanqing County. The sparse urban scenery gave way to high mountains covered in haze, yielding to tree-covered slopes with huge pinkish rocks.
The road began to twist and turn around mountains. I could notice the road get coarser under the bus wheels as evidenced by more frequent jarring and all the crooked letters in my notebook.
August 26, 2005. I was going to fulfill my childhood dream of climbing the Great Wall of China. My whole point in pushing for a family trip to China had been for this visit alone (okay, that and the Forbidden City). It was sort of a historical pilgrimage for me.
As early as the Zhou Dynasty (1100 - 256 B.C). early Chinese ducal states started building fortifications against intrusions by tribes on the Mongolian borders. Back then, these were made only of wood. In the late Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C. - 476 B.C.), stronger fortifications were made. Later, the walls in the states of Qin, Yan and Zhao were joined, making to form a formidable barrier.
After Emperor Qin Shi Huang united China in 214 B.C., he ordered the construction of a stronger wall, since then the wall has been reconstructed and augmented countless times.
But the remnants of the Great Wall in Beijing are mainly from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 A.D.). During this period workers used bricks and granite. The sophisticated design of the wall no longer relied on mere size but also on terrain and strategic location.
Bill says that during this period as much as 1 million people were put to work at the wall, that was about a fifth of the population in China during that time. Many people who died building the wall were also buried in the wall itself, thus the wall also carries the unofficial title of the world's longest cemetery. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall of China is no longer a solid 5,000-kilometer structure running from one side of China to the other. In some parts of northern China, where the wall used to run, all traces of it have disappeared entirely; still in others, the wall is no longer intact or is unsafe for tourism. In other parts, walls have been completely reclaimed by forests, leaving them mute witnesses to hundreds of years of history. In places that still have some structurally sound sections left, these are preserved and developed as tourist attractions. Shuiguan (literally meaning Water Pass) in Yanqing County, northern Beijing, is one such place Heading for the Shuiguan section of the wall, we happened upon Juyong Pass. This section of the wall still has several ancient military fortresses, one of them surrounded by a crenellated wall. From one end to another, the Shuiguan section of the wall starts up a mountain, winds down north, crosses the road and then winds up another mountain turning west as it goes. The part of the wall that crosses the road was the fortress. The bottom of the fortress has an opening wide enough to let vehicles pass through, like an ancient tollgate building, straddling the road which leads further west into the Beijing countryside. The topmost portion of the Shuiguan section is said to be 888 feet above sea level, but no one I asked knew the lowest part of the Shuiguan Section. "Kill" Bill offered us two options up the wall. For 40 Yuan, one could take a "cable car" ride up to the bastion that marked more or less the middle part of the left section of the wall. The other option was to suck it up and walk. I did not have enough Yuan on me at the time and I was willing to sweat it out. My sister Ida, her boyfriend Joseph Kaainoa and I decided to walk up the wall. The area next to the parking lot was a tourist trap, one could see shops lining the side of the street leading to the fortress. I spied this Red Army cap in one of the shops and had to have it. They offered it to me for 25 Yuan, I bargained it down to 20 Yuan. Joe also bought one for himself and we walked off, looking like two recruits of the Red Army. It was at this point when we got sidetracked by the sight of a tourist dressed up as Tibetan royalty and being paraded around a sedan carried by four men who were raising her up and down to the sound Tibetan music. I also saw a red car resembling a 1920s Ford Model-T draped with local vines you could ride around the area for a price. It was during this time that Ida, Joe and I missed our group ticket into the part of the wall where you climb. To make a long story short we had to wait fifteen minutes before Bill negotiated with the conscript posted at the turnstile to the entrance to let us follow the group that had started climbing the wall already. Fifteen minutes wasted, fifteen minutes less to climb to the top of the wall and back…argh! Past the turnstile and the conscript, I started a checklist: Huge bulky beltbag, check; automatic camera, check; digital camera, check; water bottle in hand, check; water bottle in pants, check. Okay, ready. Thus began our climb. The Tibetan music in the background heightened our mood as we started.
Right next to the fortress was a bastion, then a steep flight of steps. Contrary to common belief, the great wall is not all plane. When the gradient of the mountain was too steep, steps were cut into the wall. Steps that we were climbing now.
The distance between steps varied, sometimes they were barely a foot apart; sometimes they were two feet apart. I remember my knees nearly touching my chin. Sometimes legs were not enough and we had to use our hands as well to crawl forward. The wall was not exactly every inch the ancient defensive structure I had expected to see. Although most of the original architecture and structure still remain, the wall has been reinforced with steel railings along the sides for gripping, (especially where the wall had steps) and wooden planks where the wall sloped too sharply for comfort but not enough for steps.
Another steel rail divides the wide section of the wall in two. Those going up are supposed to take the path on the right while those headed down take the left, but this is not strictly followed.
The second bastion I got to, although frequented by tourists, is poorly maintained. Thick cobwebs housed huge spiders lurking in dark corners. The darkness further enhanced the foul smell of urine coming from many dark corners. I remember moving toward a window with a rather nice view, I admired the view for a while before I realized I was standing in a pool of urine. At least I was wearing my thick-soled, steel-toe boots at the time and not slippers or sandals.
The bastions slightly vary in size and dimension, but they are generally the same four-sided building, the first floor includes part of the wide section of the wall. This floor also has at least four narrow windows that widen as they look outside (commonly called "murder holes" these days). Looking out the window I could imagine myself as a Chinese archer raining death down on Mongol invaders below.
Stone steps lead through a narrow passage up to the second floor of the bastion that is usually open and with crenellated walls. In some bastions, steel steps replace the stone ones worn by either time or damaged beyond repair.
Past this bastion the wall levels a bit, then there are steps again. We caught up with people of all ages along the wall, there was an old man with a cane who stayed where he had stopped in his climb, there was a boy crawling up the steps under the watchful eye of his father a few steps behind him. Then there was this Japanese woman in a short pink dress…
Sometimes we passed by other tourists going up the steps slowly after losing their breath; at other times, people in better shape were overtaking us to go up ahead. A simple rule for the road (in this case, the wall) would be: Stop if you are tired but do not hug the rail and let others pass.
The tourists are not alone in the wall. If you see vendors in the tourist trap outside, expect to see them on the wall itself. In parts of the wall where the ground permits (meaning where the section is flat) local vendors have built shops where they sell everything from water (which gets more expensive as you climb higher up the wall), to t-shirts which read "I CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL" to furry Russian hats, to replicas of ancient Chinese weapons.
They have other services, too. Want to prove to your friends that you have climbed the Great Wall? They can take your picture, develop it and slap it onto a certificate that says "I CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL". Well, at least, that's what I think it says - I can't read Chinese.
They can have it for you there and then, or when you come down from further up the wall.
Don't want a certificate you can't read? They have these brass cards mounted on wooden plates that say the same thing in English. They can chisel your name on this certificate for 50 Yuan.
In the mood for something else? Try having your picture taken on the wall in a costume. Several shops along the wall offer this service. The costumes include Red Army soldier, Mongol invader, Tibetan priest, ancient Chinese warrior and a whole lot more I failed to examine.
They still do the developing and printing on the spot.
Halfway up the Shuiguan section, there is a shop where for 40 Yuan you can have any costume and pose on a camel for your photo. Yes, a real live camel! Not a desert camel but the kind with long hair. Joe, Ida and I thought it was just a huge doll until it got up and brayed. Note to the traveler: Past the shop offering the photo op with the camel, you can find the designated restrooms on this side of the section. Not much really, just a few G.I. sheets surrounding a few water closets built onto a path in the slope. There is no running water and you have to pay one Yuan per party to use them.
Oh, and some shops also sell crutches for those who think their legs have been punished enough. What you do with them afterwards is your own business.
We stopped at the fourth bastion, which was the second to the last in the left side. We wanted to go further to the last bastion but we were out of breath after another steep stair climb and only had 20 minutes left to make it back down the wall and back to our bus.
It was a bittersweet victory; we were almost to the end. We could see the highest point, but never got to it in time to get back down. If it was any consolation, the view was spectacular where we were. We could see for miles around, from where our bus came heading in, to the main gate of the Shuiguan section far below, to the lengthy stretch of the other side of the Great Wall cutting deeper into the slopes of mountains that grew foggier as they stretched out.
In this bastion, a vendor in her shop was selling water at 15 Yuan per bottle. Fifteen times the prices way down, down below! But Ida and Joe had consumed their water heading up and had no choice but to buy the water at a "high" price.
People who meet at this bastion, although strangers, seem to smile at each as if to say "congratulations for making it this far", then ask if you can take their picture with their camera and offer to take your picture with yours. Among the people who got that far was the pretty Japanese tourist in the short pink dress. I do not know what she was thinking wearing that to the wall, but she was smart enough to "wear" a small knapsack around her legs as if it were a diaper. Had she not done that, the men climbing the Great Wall after her would have been distracted by another great view. It was exhausting getting to where we were, and it wasn't even the top. We all had a difficult but fun time getting there. I told my sister climbing down the wall would be harder, she did not believe me.
Climbing up had just been a matter of pulling ourselves up. Going down entailed resisting gravity and putting our feet in the right place and position. Not to mention you are already tired from the climb up.
It's funny how different people do it. The more confident ones do it head-on, the more cautious ones face up the wall and plant their feet carefully, their hands grasping for a secure hold as they make their way down, sort of like slow-motion rappelling. Still others did it sideways.
That was how we tackled the steps going down.
Our time was almost up by the time we got down to the first bastion, but we decided to visit the fortress and made our way to its base past the steps leading to the turnstile.
We entered an opening cut into the stone of the fortress and found ourselves in darkness. But moving forward we reached the area where sunlight came in through five arched windows cut into the fortress. There was nothing special about the room. We found steps leading to the second floor, they were narrow, steep and dark. We had some trouble going up there but after some struggling we were all looking out from the crenellations of the fortress.
From there, we had a better view (and appreciation) of the height we just climbed and the forbidding right side of the wall where no one dared to go. Even where no one dared to go there was still a shop on that side. That's the enterprising Chinese to you! The one-story building which topped the fortress was made of wood, two sides were ornate wooden gates painted red and yellow which would have allowed us into the building had they not been locked. This part was not well maintained. We saw that a fat spider had made its cobweb on one of the red beams of the structure. We could also smell dung in the air and we learned later that they were raising deer in that part of the wall. I had, by then, a new respect for the Great Wall. I was sweaty, thirsty, hungry and my legs were killing me. But I was happy. Happy yet with a tinge of sadness, happy that I had fulfilled a childhood dream and sad that it was over so soon. Eventually all our companions returned to the bus and we headed out the road we came in. I looked back at the wall before it disappeared from view at a bend, wondering if I would see it again.
How many centuries have these silent walls seen, what events have they witnessed, what secrets do they still keep? The Great Wall has been there centuries before I was born and will still be there long after I am gone. Most likely it will still be there when I visit it in another lifetime.
One dream had ended. But now another was about to be fulfilled, as our next stop -at least after lunch- was the Forbidden City.
Visiting that place is -you guessed it- another childhood dream for me, another stop for my historic pilgrimage. That's another story.
After Emperor Qin Shi Huang united China in 214 B.C., he ordered the construction of a stronger wall, since then the wall has been reconstructed and augmented countless times.
But the remnants of the Great Wall in Beijing are mainly from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 A.D.). During this period workers used bricks and granite. The sophisticated design of the wall no longer relied on mere size but also on terrain and strategic location.
Bill says that during this period as much as 1 million people were put to work at the wall, that was about a fifth of the population in China during that time. Many people who died building the wall were also buried in the wall itself, thus the wall also carries the unofficial title of the world's longest cemetery. Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall of China is no longer a solid 5,000-kilometer structure running from one side of China to the other. In some parts of northern China, where the wall used to run, all traces of it have disappeared entirely; still in others, the wall is no longer intact or is unsafe for tourism. In other parts, walls have been completely reclaimed by forests, leaving them mute witnesses to hundreds of years of history. In places that still have some structurally sound sections left, these are preserved and developed as tourist attractions. Shuiguan (literally meaning Water Pass) in Yanqing County, northern Beijing, is one such place Heading for the Shuiguan section of the wall, we happened upon Juyong Pass. This section of the wall still has several ancient military fortresses, one of them surrounded by a crenellated wall. From one end to another, the Shuiguan section of the wall starts up a mountain, winds down north, crosses the road and then winds up another mountain turning west as it goes. The part of the wall that crosses the road was the fortress. The bottom of the fortress has an opening wide enough to let vehicles pass through, like an ancient tollgate building, straddling the road which leads further west into the Beijing countryside. The topmost portion of the Shuiguan section is said to be 888 feet above sea level, but no one I asked knew the lowest part of the Shuiguan Section. "Kill" Bill offered us two options up the wall. For 40 Yuan, one could take a "cable car" ride up to the bastion that marked more or less the middle part of the left section of the wall. The other option was to suck it up and walk. I did not have enough Yuan on me at the time and I was willing to sweat it out. My sister Ida, her boyfriend Joseph Kaainoa and I decided to walk up the wall. The area next to the parking lot was a tourist trap, one could see shops lining the side of the street leading to the fortress. I spied this Red Army cap in one of the shops and had to have it. They offered it to me for 25 Yuan, I bargained it down to 20 Yuan. Joe also bought one for himself and we walked off, looking like two recruits of the Red Army. It was at this point when we got sidetracked by the sight of a tourist dressed up as Tibetan royalty and being paraded around a sedan carried by four men who were raising her up and down to the sound Tibetan music. I also saw a red car resembling a 1920s Ford Model-T draped with local vines you could ride around the area for a price. It was during this time that Ida, Joe and I missed our group ticket into the part of the wall where you climb. To make a long story short we had to wait fifteen minutes before Bill negotiated with the conscript posted at the turnstile to the entrance to let us follow the group that had started climbing the wall already. Fifteen minutes wasted, fifteen minutes less to climb to the top of the wall and back…argh! Past the turnstile and the conscript, I started a checklist: Huge bulky beltbag, check; automatic camera, check; digital camera, check; water bottle in hand, check; water bottle in pants, check. Okay, ready. Thus began our climb. The Tibetan music in the background heightened our mood as we started.
The distance between steps varied, sometimes they were barely a foot apart; sometimes they were two feet apart. I remember my knees nearly touching my chin. Sometimes legs were not enough and we had to use our hands as well to crawl forward. The wall was not exactly every inch the ancient defensive structure I had expected to see. Although most of the original architecture and structure still remain, the wall has been reinforced with steel railings along the sides for gripping, (especially where the wall had steps) and wooden planks where the wall sloped too sharply for comfort but not enough for steps.
Another steel rail divides the wide section of the wall in two. Those going up are supposed to take the path on the right while those headed down take the left, but this is not strictly followed.
The second bastion I got to, although frequented by tourists, is poorly maintained. Thick cobwebs housed huge spiders lurking in dark corners. The darkness further enhanced the foul smell of urine coming from many dark corners. I remember moving toward a window with a rather nice view, I admired the view for a while before I realized I was standing in a pool of urine. At least I was wearing my thick-soled, steel-toe boots at the time and not slippers or sandals.
The bastions slightly vary in size and dimension, but they are generally the same four-sided building, the first floor includes part of the wide section of the wall. This floor also has at least four narrow windows that widen as they look outside (commonly called "murder holes" these days). Looking out the window I could imagine myself as a Chinese archer raining death down on Mongol invaders below.
Stone steps lead through a narrow passage up to the second floor of the bastion that is usually open and with crenellated walls. In some bastions, steel steps replace the stone ones worn by either time or damaged beyond repair.
Past this bastion the wall levels a bit, then there are steps again. We caught up with people of all ages along the wall, there was an old man with a cane who stayed where he had stopped in his climb, there was a boy crawling up the steps under the watchful eye of his father a few steps behind him. Then there was this Japanese woman in a short pink dress…
Sometimes we passed by other tourists going up the steps slowly after losing their breath; at other times, people in better shape were overtaking us to go up ahead. A simple rule for the road (in this case, the wall) would be: Stop if you are tired but do not hug the rail and let others pass.
They have other services, too. Want to prove to your friends that you have climbed the Great Wall? They can take your picture, develop it and slap it onto a certificate that says "I CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL". Well, at least, that's what I think it says - I can't read Chinese.
They can have it for you there and then, or when you come down from further up the wall.
Don't want a certificate you can't read? They have these brass cards mounted on wooden plates that say the same thing in English. They can chisel your name on this certificate for 50 Yuan.
In the mood for something else? Try having your picture taken on the wall in a costume. Several shops along the wall offer this service. The costumes include Red Army soldier, Mongol invader, Tibetan priest, ancient Chinese warrior and a whole lot more I failed to examine.
They still do the developing and printing on the spot.
Halfway up the Shuiguan section, there is a shop where for 40 Yuan you can have any costume and pose on a camel for your photo. Yes, a real live camel! Not a desert camel but the kind with long hair. Joe, Ida and I thought it was just a huge doll until it got up and brayed. Note to the traveler: Past the shop offering the photo op with the camel, you can find the designated restrooms on this side of the section. Not much really, just a few G.I. sheets surrounding a few water closets built onto a path in the slope. There is no running water and you have to pay one Yuan per party to use them.
Oh, and some shops also sell crutches for those who think their legs have been punished enough. What you do with them afterwards is your own business.
It was a bittersweet victory; we were almost to the end. We could see the highest point, but never got to it in time to get back down. If it was any consolation, the view was spectacular where we were. We could see for miles around, from where our bus came heading in, to the main gate of the Shuiguan section far below, to the lengthy stretch of the other side of the Great Wall cutting deeper into the slopes of mountains that grew foggier as they stretched out.
In this bastion, a vendor in her shop was selling water at 15 Yuan per bottle. Fifteen times the prices way down, down below! But Ida and Joe had consumed their water heading up and had no choice but to buy the water at a "high" price.
People who meet at this bastion, although strangers, seem to smile at each as if to say "congratulations for making it this far", then ask if you can take their picture with their camera and offer to take your picture with yours. Among the people who got that far was the pretty Japanese tourist in the short pink dress. I do not know what she was thinking wearing that to the wall, but she was smart enough to "wear" a small knapsack around her legs as if it were a diaper. Had she not done that, the men climbing the Great Wall after her would have been distracted by another great view. It was exhausting getting to where we were, and it wasn't even the top. We all had a difficult but fun time getting there. I told my sister climbing down the wall would be harder, she did not believe me.
Climbing up had just been a matter of pulling ourselves up. Going down entailed resisting gravity and putting our feet in the right place and position. Not to mention you are already tired from the climb up.
It's funny how different people do it. The more confident ones do it head-on, the more cautious ones face up the wall and plant their feet carefully, their hands grasping for a secure hold as they make their way down, sort of like slow-motion rappelling. Still others did it sideways.
That was how we tackled the steps going down.
We entered an opening cut into the stone of the fortress and found ourselves in darkness. But moving forward we reached the area where sunlight came in through five arched windows cut into the fortress. There was nothing special about the room. We found steps leading to the second floor, they were narrow, steep and dark. We had some trouble going up there but after some struggling we were all looking out from the crenellations of the fortress.
From there, we had a better view (and appreciation) of the height we just climbed and the forbidding right side of the wall where no one dared to go. Even where no one dared to go there was still a shop on that side. That's the enterprising Chinese to you! The one-story building which topped the fortress was made of wood, two sides were ornate wooden gates painted red and yellow which would have allowed us into the building had they not been locked. This part was not well maintained. We saw that a fat spider had made its cobweb on one of the red beams of the structure. We could also smell dung in the air and we learned later that they were raising deer in that part of the wall. I had, by then, a new respect for the Great Wall. I was sweaty, thirsty, hungry and my legs were killing me. But I was happy. Happy yet with a tinge of sadness, happy that I had fulfilled a childhood dream and sad that it was over so soon. Eventually all our companions returned to the bus and we headed out the road we came in. I looked back at the wall before it disappeared from view at a bend, wondering if I would see it again.
How many centuries have these silent walls seen, what events have they witnessed, what secrets do they still keep? The Great Wall has been there centuries before I was born and will still be there long after I am gone. Most likely it will still be there when I visit it in another lifetime.
One dream had ended. But now another was about to be fulfilled, as our next stop -at least after lunch- was the Forbidden City.
Visiting that place is -you guessed it- another childhood dream for me, another stop for my historic pilgrimage. That's another story.
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