On Sunday morning we woke up early to join a tour to the great wall. A tour is the easiest way to see the wall, as the wall is actually a bit of a drive out of Beijing. We went to a section that was about an hour and a half drive. After a solid nap in the van, we arrived at one of the seven wonders.
From the bottom of the hill the wall doesn't actually look that impressive, but that is because you can't see the scope of it. After a quick chairlift ride to the top you could see how immense the wall really was. It runs along the peak of the mountain as far as you can see. The part we were at was originally built as a border between China and Mongolia. Much of the wall has been restored and widened, but even without the restoration the craftsmanship of it all was amazing. It is huge! We were reading "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost in class today and one of my students asked me: "Why the speaker always had to mend his wall every spring. Why couldn't he have just made it strong, like the great wall? If concrete existed then I am sure it existed when Frost wrote this poem." I was not sure how to answer, but I guess Frost could learn a thing or two about building a lasting wall from the ancient Chinese.
We had three hours to explore the wall, and we made the most of it. We were only allowed to go 23 guard towers (at which point it became "wild" and we were warned we may never return). Our tour guide thought that going to the 23rd tower would be a bit too much, but we accepted our challenge readily. It was a very cold, but clear day on the wall and our power charging to the end definitely kept us warm. We all wore every piece of clothing we had packed to Beijing, but quite quickly stuffed layers into our (read: Taha's) bag to cool off.
I was not expecting quite so many steps, or at least not so many steep steps! I was most impressed with the older sections, the ones that were not restored for the Beijing Olympics. These sections were much narrower, and made of many mismatched stones. Along the way there were little stalls offering pop and chips, offered by locals who make the hike up to the wall everyday. As I was walking I was imagining being one of the guards up on the wall. Warming up in one of the towers. Peering out into Mongolia, eyes open to attackers. Marching back and forth, back and forth, atop a giant wall. Although the concept of the wall is infinitely strange to me, seeing it was amazing.
After three hours of trekking across the wall, we lined up to take the slide down. That's right, the slide. You are allowed to take the chairlift back down, but the other option is a giant slide that looks like a water slide sans water. You sit on a wheeled sled and get a push off at the top! There is a break, but I only used it once I caught up to Meg! It was a ton of fun jetting down the mountain. Only in China would they build a slide as the primary method of transportation...
At the bottom we had lunch with our tour group, and drove back to Beijing. Although we had planned to try out Peking Duck that night, we were out of time. We drank a few cups of coffee, and then headed to the airport.
It was a great weekend, and I was able to see most of what I wanted to see in Beijing. I will definitely be back there again this year!
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