Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The Less Travelled Great Wall

A university friend, Greg Fisher (aka Fish) came to Beijing while he was on a general Asia tour. I hadn't yet been to the great wall yet, and of course, leaped on the opportunity. But I wasn't going to no Badaling.

A bit of background. The Great Wall of China is, well, long. That part is obvious. So, since it's so long, there are many different places along it you can visit. The closest section to Beijing is called Badaling (八达岭). It's about 75km NW of Beijing, and easily accessible by cheap, public buses. It's the most viewed section, hence, very touristy. In addition, it's been near completely rebuilt, and so is not very authentic. People who live in Beijing often talk about Badaling with general scorn. I wasn't taking Greg on no kiddy-ride.

We decided to join a tour group, and do a hike between two sections that were quite a bit further away from Beijing. The hike was from Jinshanling (金山岭)to Simatai (司马台). It took over 3hrs to get to Jinshanling by minibus, which left at a happy 7am. The day was bright, sunny and clear, quite fortunate really. It was also pretty hot, 37degrees...

At Jinshanling, we loaded up on overpriced bananas and water. We bought a bit more water than was necessary, as we found out soon that you can buy ice-cold water on the wall from farmers for 5yuan (about $0.80). That's expensive for water here, but really, once on the wall, in the blazing heat, it's SO worth it. Past the first gate, there were two ways to choose. The first on the right was a path heading to a cable car, and on the left was a way to walk up to the wall. We took the walking path. The wall began pretty high up, maybe 200m, but not too bad.
The view from the first tower at Jinshanling was pretty inspiring. I didn't know that it just got SO much better as you get to Simatai.



The view Westward from the first tower we arrived on at Jinshanling. I thought this was impressive at first.

Me and Greg at the first tower we reached.







Peep-hole.

The towers are all located two arrow shots away (not sure exact distance), so that nobody could sneak up the middle without being within volley-range.

Some parts were really crumbling.
Mid-section of Jinshanling

Greg, thoughtful... well, maybe.



One of the middle towers of Jinshanling.






A couple we met on the way, him Canadian, she Japanese.

Looking into Simatai. From here, there was a long drop to a river, and then a massive ascent if you go on. We weren't going beyond the Simatai station.




Damn toll gate. On the other side, there was a pretty heated argument between a group of 10 of us and 2 ticket guys we believed to be illegitimate. We paid the whole 5yuan in the end... but it was a matter of principle.

View from the bridge

Simatai looking West, the direction we came from.



ZIPLINE!

Two of our tour-mates coming down the zipline.
THE Simatai picture. Stone says "Simatai Great Wall" (well, "Long Wall")...