What's so great about the wall?

Well we made it back safe and sound from our Beijing sojourn, and I now feel like a real man in accordance with Chairman Mao’s words, “A man is not a real man until he has been to the Great Wall.” It was a wonderful experience and a truly great family holiday. The kids had a great time and they were fantastic in the way that they traveled and saw the sights. The best way to recount our adventures is to post a number of different installments, that way my fingers don’t get too sore, and you don’t give up reading half way through. There are many topics I could choose for our first installment, but I cannot help myself, I have to start with the Great Wall.

A little while before Christmas I spoke with a Kiwi guy, Joe, and mentioned to him that we were going to Beijing for spring break. This prompted him to share his experiences of Beijing with me, and he also gave me the number of the guy they used to get out to the wall. It seems that you can get to the wall a number of different ways, but from what we had read it sounded like having your own driver for the day was the way to go. So when we arrived on Friday my first job was to call this guy (who from this point will be known as Peter) to arrange our trip. After his initial shocked reaction, and my poor attempts to explain to him where to pick us up from, the trip was arranged for 8am Saturday morning.

Before concluding our phone call we needed to negotiate the price for this little escapade. I explained to him that we wanted to go to the Mutianya section of the wall (about a 30 minute drive further out than the more touristy Badaling section). And after that we wanted to go to the Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way. He explained that this would take all day and that it would cost 400 Chinese Yuan Renminbi which sounded very reasonable, so the deal was done. Now keep in mind that Peter picked us up in his car (see photo), paid for the fuel and all tolls, and waited at our stops while we went and explored, all for 400 Yuan! How much is this in Australian dollars? $65.50! Is it any wonder that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t spend the money that we had budgeted for the whole trip?

I have been reading a book called “Planet of Slums” by Mike Davis which takes an in depth look into the world’s increasing urban slums, so it was with increased interest that I looked at the many shanty towns we passed through on our way to the wall. It was also with increased respect and admiration that I looked at the people standing around in these villages for their amazing resourcefulness and ingenuity. This hour and a half journey to the wall was an adventure in itself.

When we finally arrived at the wall we were in total shock, partly due to the magnitude of the wall, but moreso due to the fact that we were the only tourists there. We were actually the first ones there and they had to start up the chairlift to get us to the wall. We struck it at a very good time as we only saw 10 or so other people during the whole 2 hours that we were on the wall. This was like Christmas for us because we thought we were going to be shuffling and pushing our way around, but this was not the case. This was a truly mind blowing experience, and we were totally amazed not only by the wall’s size, but also by the precarious mountain peaks on which it was built. The kids loved running up and down the steps and hiding in the watch towers, while Jenene and I spent long moments just staring, trying to take it all in and pondering what was.

After walking back along the wall to our starting point, we jumped on a toboggan and rode the metal luge back down to the carpark. This is obviously very touristy, but it was a good way to entice the kids to walk as far as they did, knowing that there was a toboggan ride at the end. All in all this was by far one of the most amazing experiences that we have had, one that is very difficult to capture in words and pictures. Definitely something that we will remember always, and the fact that we cold share it with our kids made it even more special.