China Day 7—The Great Wall

Today was one of the great adventures of our travels, and we were definitely amazing as we wandered far from our normal comfort zones in a foreign land! We hopped on the train at 11:15 last night and started our journey from Nanjing to Beijing, migrating in style from the Southern capital to the Northern. Chivalry and frugality struck a satisfactory balance as Jodi, Jaime, and Liz enjoyed the comforts of a sleeper compartment and Justin and I sat up in second class. It wasn’t a bad trip, much like a similar sojourn in Economy Plus, but without friendly service, food, or well-kept bathrooms. I don’t know what it is, but bathrooms struggle to stay clean in this particular part of the world.

With only a few aches and my terribly swollen feet, we arrived in Beijing a little early, just before 7:15 am, and headed straight for our hotel. We did the luggage pull in Shanghai, and we were not going to do that again in Beijing. One room was nearly ready when we arrived, so they stored our luggage for us while we ran for breakfast at the Cake Shop. Perhaps one day I’ll rhapsodize about Cake Shop, Cakes, and especially Cake Lady, but now is not the time for such wanderings.

We returned to the hotel, stuffed all our stuff in one room, then headed for the Wall. We had some strange issues with transportation and communication, waited almost an hour for a bus that might never have come, and finally joined a couple from Australia and two women from Europe and rented a van to take us there. It felt so venturesome to just band together on the fly to accomplish something so amazing. They were a little misleading about the size of the van, so our trip was a bit on the close side, but it was only 45 minutes, and he took us right to the gate of Juyongguan Pass where we bought tickets, arranged a meeting time with our comrades, and set out for adventure on the winding slopes of the pass.

The wall really is a marvel; even the limited view we had of it was spectacular, awe-inspiring, and humbling. It was built over several centuries as individual walls of defence were slowly joined together to form a long undulating wall that served simultaneously as protection, watchtower, and warning system. The location we visited was a stronghold built in the valley, and was completely enclosed on all sides by wall that then ran in different directions from there.

We were informed that we needed to scale the Western mountain rather than the Eastern because Mao Zedong indicated that you cannot be a true Chinese man without having done so. In that light, we headed west up the steepest, most uneven winding path I’ve ever experienced. I counted myself lucky, however, because Justin had that baby strapped to his chest the entire time. As we ascended we got warmer and warmer and were down to our regular shirts despite the snow clinging to the mountainsides and sides of the stairs.

It was a victorious experience to make that climb, and I was grateful for the things I’ve done in my life to make such a journey possible. The descent may have been more difficult than the climb, but we made it with about 15 minutes to spare before our meeting time. We wound our way back into the city, and parted company with our friends at the metro stations as we headed to our hotel to feed, relax, and regroup.

We were keen to scout out a night market for dinner, so we asked the concierge, and he sent us to a nearby place that we never found. We did enjoy a nice walk through the area around our hotel, but we never did find that great local market. The weather held nicely for us, hovering in the mid 40s (F) and while we longed for the 60s and 70s of Nanjing, we were grateful for the mild day and evening.

During our stroll we came across a band of drummers at the street corner, yes, at 9 in the evening. They were drumming and dancing, and the leader was keeping time with these medium-sized cymbals. It was a wonder to behold, especially in the middle of a giant city on the street corner as the evening wore on. That brings me to another list:

1. Evenings are a busy time in China. Both in the North and South we noticed that shops are always open until 8 or 10 at night, and they stay busy. Grocery stores, barbers, streetside cafes are all open late into the evening. I think it has to do with the large working class—these aren't people of leisure that can zip out during the day or take a long lunch, or leave work early. They own their own business and shops and tend to have only evenings to do their running around. This did, of course, make for some fascinating night market experiences.

2. Bicycles and scooters are not considered motor vehicles, and are therefore not bound by the lesser law of traffic signals. This was more pronounced in Nanjing than Beijing, but only because Beijing had separate signal lights for the pedal traffic. This led to some scary moments for us as pedestrians and as bus riders. I don't know how more people don't die.

3. There is no common law of right of way. Pedestrians, Bikers, Cars, and Scooters all seem to have equal right to all parts of the roads, side roads, and sidewalks. Again, scary stuff.