The Great Wall

On Saturday, HBA made arrangements for any interested students to visit the Great Wall free of charge. Unwilling to pass up such a fantastic opportunity, I eagerly hopped aboard the chartered 'New Moon Bus Limited Company' vehicle to Mutianyu, an older part of the wall with relatively few tourists compared to major sites like Badaling. After about an hour's drive through some of the poorest villages I've seen here so far, we arrived at the base of the Wall. Because the structure itself is built along the crest of a mountain, you can't just drive along next to it, climb up, and start walking. It's actually enough of a hike from the parking lot to the top to have you working up a sweat before you even get there.

The view from the top of the Mutianyu section is impressive. The Wall extends as far as the eye can see in either direction (admittedly not very far given the Beijing pollution, but you know what I mean), negotiating sharp inclines and winding curves in a way that appears almost natural. What an astonishing feat of human engineering.

With a whole day ahead of us, we decided to turn left (which I'm assuming is west) and walk as far as we could before the renovated part of the Wall ended and the wild, time-worn part began. Contrary to what I had thought, walking the Wall is not at all like strolling down an ancient elevated walkway. It's more like intense hiking -- like climbing a bona fide Stairway to... um... Nirvana? The sun is unforgiving. The shade provided by the towers -- insufficient to beat the heat. All along the way vendors pressure you to buy their overpriced water, which you absolutely need to stay hydrated. (Luckily we'd brought plenty of our own.) For me, the physically demanding nature of the geography called into question the effectiveness/necessity of the Wall's original function as a means of protection against invading nations. The mountains themselves seem to form an impenetrable natural barrier which no army would ever attempt to scale.

After about a three hour walk, we reached the 'non-tourist area', where the Wall becomes unrecognizable beneath a forest of vines and shrubbery. We carefully attempted to traverse this section for a few minutes before realizing that it was pretty much impossible. The silhouette of the overgrown wall, however, continued far into the distance.

Having now seen a small part of the Great Wall, I feel inclined to visit other sites. One of the disadvantages of such a large-scale tourist attraction is that you feel like you haven't really and couldn't ever possibly experience it in its entirety. Hopefully I'll be back.



再见
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