August 20, 2007

This weekend was spectacular. We went to Jiankou, a more wild part of the Great Wall. It was overgrown with bushes, and parts of the wall had crumbled. We had no idea that it was going to be difficult. So 7 of us went- Anita, Alvin, Alli, DyAnn, Calvin, Susan, and myself. We arrived there at 10pm, to a farmer’s courtyard near the wall.

4 of us went to sleep on the wall.. trekking through the woods late at night, with no moonlight to guide us, hoping to find the wall. We did, finally, after an exhausting 1.5 hour climb. We went around, looking for a flat place to sleep, and eventually find it. We could only see the silhouette of the mountains, a hazy black sky dotted with stars. The sleeping bags were pretty comfortable, and we probably slept for 4 hours.

The next day, we woke up with dew on our faces. Then we looked around and realized where we were- to a truly breathtaking landscape. We were actually on the wall, and on one side was a tower in ruins. On the other was a amazing vista- layers upon layers of green mountains with steep rocky cliffs, the Great Wall that spirals, twists and snakes along the tops of these hills. We waited for the sunrise, and at 6am the sun finally burst out from behind them, an awesome sight.

Later in the morning, we heard voices. Actually, it was the rest of the group coming up to meet us. They had slept in the farmer’s house. We saw them first going up to a tower in the distance, before finding another way to get to us. Then, we gathered our gear, and went west.. where the wall progressively got more challenging. From a wall overgrown with vegetation came a steep and narrow part of the wall that went nearly vertical- called “sky stairs.” The steps were intact, but we were on all fours, and Alvin had a minor panic attack. We made it up to the top of the tower, and enjoyed the view again. A group of locals, whom we had saw earlier as a parasoled bunch of tourists, caught up to us quickly. They had almost no gear.. two plastic bags filled with tea and mantou slinged over the shoulder of one guy. Another was a woman probably in her 50s.

They went ahead, while we lingered for a few more minutes. And then came the most scary part of the wall- a 30 foot vertical section that had crumbled.. there were not even stairs, just stones piled on top of each other. We had to scale it without any ropes, and near the top, the Chinese group had to lift us over the edge. None of us could have climbed it without their help.

Exhausted, we made our way along a relatively easy part of the wall, and stopped at the next tower for a lunch break. Esther, who couldn’t come last minute, had bought us some amazing hiking food- German bread, salami, peanut butter and jelly, and raisins. I never had sandwiches so good in my life.

Although we wanted to rest there forever, we knew we needed to keep moving, so we cleaned up our stuff and headed down another dangerous part of the wall. We actually encountered a part that had completely collapsed- we were looking over into chasm, 100 feet deep. So we turned back, and had to find an alternate way through the forest. We had no idea where we should go.. towards the wall, or towards to city.

We found that the path did eventually lead back to the wall, but first we had to hike sideways along a precarious cliff. We made it, exhausted and unsure if we’ll ever find a way back. The farmer had told us about a pine tree that would mark an exit trail. We never found the tree, and instead followed a group of hikers down another path. At the end of the path- which took about an hour to walk down- we finally saw civilization. We bought some cold drinks from an old lady, and they tasted so good!

Back at the courtyard house, the farmer and his wife cooked us a gigantic feast which we could not finish. Then, we accidentally insulted them by asking to "da bao."