One of many views through windows and doorways of a guardhouse along the wall.

One of many views through windows and doorways of a guardhouse along the wall.

The “fact” that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made thing that can be seen from outer space is actually fiction. No matter. That seems almost insignificant in the face of the immensity of the wall itself.

A 1,000-plus years old and more than 10,000 kilometers long, it is the kind of engineering project that is unimaginable and undoable today. It was accomplished without modern technology literally on the backs of prisoners, soldiers and citizens. Like other comparisons involving China, it dwarfs any other wall built or being contemplated today.

There was no doubt that visiting the Great Wall was top of our list of experiences for our time in China, the only question was how. Almost all tourists, meaning more than 10 million every year, visit the wall at Badaling, making it one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. The portions of the wall from Badaling to Mutianyu have been completely reconstructed and are close to Beijing, making them easily accessible and replete with cable car access, toilets and a variety of eating options including, I’m told, Macdonald’s and Subway. But that is of course not my style.

Knowing that you could hike and camp along the wall in wild, lonely and inaccessible places, meant that was the only way I could imagine experiencing it.

This section of the wall closed... to other people...

This section of the wall closed… to people other than us…

Our journey took us some 170 kilometers out of Beijing to Jiankou and we knew we were on the right track when we peeled off on ever narrower dirt roads punctuated at the end with gigantic official signs noting “This portion of the Great Wall is not open to the public.”

Averaging just under 11 kilometers a day of hiking, the initial 800 meter climb up the hillside to get to the wall at Jiankou is a taxing ascent at a steep gradient, not made any easier by the fact that it was raining and foggy. We were grateful for the Renminbi 7 (US$ 1) rain ponchos that we had bought in the general store of a nearby village, even though they puddled over us like plastic ballgowns. Eventually we discerned that we had reached the top because the fog was lighter, not because we could actually see anything. We were literally walking in the low clouds.

I was disappointed. Would we get to see any of the wall stretching out before us across the crenelating crests of the mountain range?

That thought was quickly erased as we hiked along the wild wall, thick with grasses, flowers and trees and beautiful autumn colours.

Adding our hopes to the wishing tree.

Adding our hopes to the wishing tree.

Those bushes provided much needed handholds as we negotiated the slippery portions of steep and rain-slick stone, making us marvel at how armoured soldiers had managed to march up and down the steep, slippery sections. In other areas, roots and time had shifted the stones and they surged up at angles designed to trip up unfocused hikers.

It was stunning in its solitude. We met a mere four people all day.

Then it was time to descend, meet our driver and drive 120 kilometres to Gubeiko. Dinner was served in a local shop, sizzling and spicy potato slices, stew and sweet and sour chicken. The meal was punctuated by villagers popping in to buy essentials (cigarettes), in some instances they grabbed what they needed leaving the money on the counter, in others they asked for the owner (the dizzying array of whiskey was well out of reach behind the counter) and his tiny guard dog would break into a volley of piercing barks.

The expression says it all!

The expression says it all!

Then we added layers, collected our tents, sleeping bags and torches and hiked up to the nearest guardhouse on the wall to bed down for the evening. It would be C’s first camping experience and he was excited. I was both anxious and excited, wondering how long it would take the discomfort and the cold — it was around 7C (44F) not factoring the chill from a stiff wind — to erode the excitement and novelty.

Fortunately I had packed hot chocolate mix for just this moment, so warmed from within, we successfully navigated toilet breaks in the pitch black night (I’m peeing off the wall!) and would have slept in were it not for the arrival of a breakfast of banana and steamed sponge cake from the village.

We hiked along 800 year-old original wall. Unlike the day before where vegetation had taken over the wall, these 10+ kilometres were sandy and windswept. Large chunks of the wall had completely fallen away — no ramparts on either side, and in some places the wall narrowed to barely a foot-wide eroding spine.

View over the Great Wall looking towards Jinshanling.

View over the Great Wall looking towards Jinshanling.

The day was clear and we were mesmerized by being able to see the wall with its watchtowers crowning the ridges and stretching away in both directions from us from one horizon to the other. I have an embarrassment of photos to testify to the shutter-happy state this put me in. (Click on the photos to see them full-sized, they look much better than on this page!)

It was disquieting to encounter other people during the last hour of our hike as we neared the restored Jinshanling section of the wall. Prior to that we had only met one other party of hikers all day. We descended via hundreds of steps to the main gate and were almost in shock at our rude reintroduction to society. It was noisy, but not with the sound of the birds or the rhythm of our steps. There was a precise order and regiment to the paving stones and the handrails that seemed unnatural. Buildings and street lights loomed over us instead of trees and tottering guardhouses in various states of disrepair. Give me the wild wall!

(As lots of people have asked — we travelled with a guide from the Great Wall Adventure Club. Highly recommended.)

 

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