Climbing the Great Wall of China

Gentle Reader,

Time to backtrack once again... all the way back to our travels around Beijing.  We visited perhaps the most well-preserved section of the wall at Badaling, which is about 43 miles north of Beijing.  This Great Wall was built during the Ming Dynasty, from 1368-1644.

There were numerous surprises at The Great Wall.  The most astounding was the number of people packed into the space as we walked up the wall.  Going up, we were literally toe to toe and shoulder to shoulder.  These crowded conditions didn't seem to bother anyone.  We kept being told, over and over, that the Chinese love crowds, love being around many, many people.

Another surprise was the sheer slope of the wall.  When we first began our ascent, the footing was at quite an angle.  With the wind whipping away, it was very difficult to negotiate placing one's feet and remaining upright.  If I lost my footing, I think I would have continued to be propelled upward by the bodies moving forward around me.  This portion of the climb did not have step, simply a rising slope that threw everyone off balance in the wind.

We were saddened by the amount of pollution in the air, which made it very difficult /impossible to see the views I had always seen in books/ film.  Perhaps some of the murkiness in the air was fog, but everything we heard confirmed the increase in pollution in the area, which resulted in the lack of being able to truly see the beauty around us.  What we were able to see, however, was astonishingly beautiful.

There was also this sense of an incredibly strong and enduring structure... beneath us, around us, winding through the landscape like a powerful dragon.

Another surprise was that I thought we would be climbing for hours, even a full day.  We took the cable car lift up part of the way, as did everyone, since we would not have been able to ascend and descend in time to get back to the bus.  Although the climb required balance and exertion, the elation at the top was due in large measure to the exhilaration of actually being at The Great Wall.  There was unbounded joy watching climber after climber touch the top face of the Wall.  This was a moment I will never forget...  It was wonderful to climb the wall with my beloved, Scott.

Namaste,
Marianne/Bailing