Still smiling after the 14th kilometre at Simatai

He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man – 毛泽东 Mao Zedong

I crossed off one more thing on my “things to do in my lifetime” list today: hiking 长城 the Great Wall in China. Several sections of the Great Wall are accessible from Beijing: the most popular is Badaling 八达岭 which is the Disneyland section - overrun with tourists and fully restored – complete with night lights and hand railings. Craig, Chris, Puja, and I were heading 3 hours outside the city to 金山岭 Jinshanling, a considerably more overrun section which is also the starting point for a 10km hike to the 司马台 Simatai section of the Wall. We also planned to go up and down the Simatai section, bringing the total planned distance for the day to approximately 20km.

Note: a picture is worth a thousand words and there are at least that many words in this entry, so if you don’t have time you can see photos (all 155 of them!) here.

The morning was off to a good start when we were promptly picked up by 刘师傅, Driver Liu who, during the drive, cheerfully expressed his admiration for us for attempting the hike. Apparently he’s had passengers who called him back to the drop-off point because they weren’t able to finish the hike. Upon arriving at 金山岭 at 9am, he kindly made sure we bought tickets and wrote down his cell phone number before waving goodbye and saying he will pick us up at 司马台 in the afternoon. But before you can actually walk along the Great Wall, you have to hike up to the Wall first. The steep uphill hike was off to an interesting start when guards pointed us down a trail that was so dug up it was more ditch than path. As we teetered along the remains of the trail, a worker digging the ditch looked up and made a smoking motion – trying to bum a cigarette off us – as we passed by. We tried to ignore him but when he shouted at us, I shouted back “我们真得没有，我们不抽烟 - we really don’t have any, we don’t smoke!” Surprisingly, he responded by pointing after me and declaring in an astonished tone: “她是中国人 - she’s Chinese!”

The wall loomed larger as we got closer to the entrance and it became apparent that this isn’t so much a Great Wall as it is a bloody Amazing Wall. It was unbelievable to finally be on the top, surrounded by a panorama of blue sky, grey mountain, and green hillside. And of course, there was the Wall itself, curving along the mountain ridge as far as the eye can see.

First order of business was to call Canada. Yes, there was cell phone reception and it was pretty sweet to say “hi ma, guess where I’m calling from? I’m on top of the Great Wall!” For the next few hours, we were the only ones on the Great Wall, save for the occasional guard or tout trying to push “I hiked the Great Wall!” tshirts, water, or postcards on us. It’s amazing to find touts on this section since the condition of the wall didn’t make for easy hiking – sections were on a very steep incline and the stony steps, when they weren’t reduced to rubble, were very narrow and high. Forget deterring marauding Mongolian invaders, the Wall would deter people defending the Wall from going to work every day.

One can gauge progress on a Great Wall hike by counting the number of watchtowers you pass through. According to Lonely Planet, Jinshanling has 24 watchtowers but since we started in the middle of that section, we probably went through about 12 towers before starting the Simatai section. Watchtowers are also good places to rest - provided you’re not in one that smells of urine (while you are forbidden to spit on the Wall, nothing says you can’t pee on this UNESCO World Heritage site). The condition of watchtowers ranged from being in fairly good shape to being in ruins. We even climbed on the roof of one for lunch – before we were kicked off by a guard who told us we weren’t allowed to be up there. The same guard later caught Puja and Craig again for climbing along a broken ridge. I bet he thought we were such troublemakers, damn 老外 laowai – foreigners – climbing like monkeys all over the place.

The atmosphere of the Wall changes as you progress from Jinshanling to Simatai. Jinshanling is older, less restored – and consequently has fewer tourists - and the route mostly meanders up and down in great big waves along the mountain ridge. Simatai is much more restored; it was hard to believe we were on the same wall when the stony rubble we were picking over for the past 4 hours transformed into an evenly paved surface. But any gain in the improved walking surface disappeared in face of the fact that Simatai is entirely uphill - 16 watchtowers of very steep staircase. The section passing through the last 4 watchtowers is so steep that it’s known as the Stairway to Heaven (insert Zeppelin reference here), partly for the sensational view at the top and partly for the perilous journey to reach the last watchtower.

However, a guard and chain blocks the rest of the route beyond the 12th watchtower, along with a sign warning of danger and stating that anyone caught will be fined 200 RMB – translation: “200RMB (20 USD) entry fee beyond this point”. The catch is to arrive very early in the morning before the guard arrives and of course have 200 RMB ready to hand over for the climb back down. Since it was already 4pm, we didn’t reach heaven today but it was a sweet journey nonetheless.

After pounding stone wall for the nearly part of 7 hours, there was no better way to get down than to give our feet a break by riding a zipline from base of the wall over the Simatai reservoir. Then it was just a short boat ride to the other side to meet Driver Liu at the parking lot where he drove four 很累但是累得很高兴 - exhausted but exhilarated - hikers back to Beijing.

Quotes from the day
Um, I guess this is a bad time to mention that I’m afraid of heights
- a wobbly-kneed Chris looking down from the top of Jinshanling

You know graffiti’s old when it’s written in traditional characters.
- Craig

we’re either on the Stairway to Heaven or the Highway to Hell
- a very tired Chris, around the 14th kilometre

If we take the zipline, we can bypass the hawkers.
The hookers?
- Craig and a confused Puja

Beihai Park

This week was very long: we actually had seven straight days of class to make up for the time we had off for National Day (the week I went to Shanghai). By Friday, I was so ready for the weekend that I pulled “a Chris” and skipped class. I slept in and then headed to 北海公园 Beihai Park located in the center of Beijing behind the Forbidden City.

Beihai Park is smaller than the Summer Palace but it would be easy to spend a day wandering around temples and pavilions, not to mention hanging out by the lake. Our admission ticket included entry to 永安寺 Yong An Temple. The temple grounds contains several pavilions and (surprise) a Buddhist temple, but my favourite part is a large rock formation which contains a grotto that houses several Buddha statues and has colourful murals on the wall.

Beihai Park pictures are here.

However, we cut the visit short to head back to Wudaokou. We had other concerns at hand: Chris, Craig, Puja, and I are hiking the Great Wall tomorrow and need to gear up with food and water, arrange transportation to the wall, oh and of course, get a good night’s rest.

After a trip to Wal-Mart and a bite to eat, we headed to the South Gate of BLCU where plenty of drivers linger on Friday nights hoping to earn the business of students heading out to bars and clubs in Sanlitun or Houhai. We wanted an early start the next morning so the plan was to find a driver, arrange transportation to and from the Wall and negotiate a price for the day. This was surprisingly easy: the first driver we approached was friendly, immediately recognized the hike we wanted to do, and knew the dropoff and pickup points. He was so pleasant that we didn’t even bother bargaining down his price of 500 RMB (60 USD) for the day - which seems perfectly reasonable considering the 3 hour drive to reach the section we wanted to hike. So that’s settled! We head out 6am tomorrow morning towards our adventure on the Great Wall.

The Summer Palace

Temperatures have dropped to the mid 20s and the cooler fall weather means pollution disappears and there are blue skies and sunshine for a few glorious weeks. It’s perfect weather for visiting parks around Beijing – so on Thursday afternoon, I hopped on a bus with Chris and Craig for a 15 minute ride to 颐和园 Yiheyuan - The Summer Palace. It's the largest imperial garden still in existence and served as a place the Empress Dowager Cixi to escape the summer heat. It’s also a nice place to spend a fall afternoon. We stopped at all the main attractions such as the Long Corridor and the Stone Boat, with the numbers of tourists thinning out as we walked further into the grounds, following the path around 昆明湖 Kun Ming Lake.

After walking for 2 hours, we realized that we sorely misjudged the distance around the lake but we were already halfway around and there was nothing to do but plod onwards until we returned to the entrance. The sun was low in the sky and we had a chance to see the garden in lovely evening light and peace and quiet since few tourists wander as far as we did. The sky was dark when we finally returned to the entrance; it was eerie and completely disorienting to see buildings and grounds that were teeming with tourists just few hours ago stand dark and empty instead. Just as we started to wonder what we’d do if we were lost and locked inside the Summer Palace a lady who looked like she knew where she was going strolled by. We followed her as she walked towards a closed gate whereupon an old man waiting there unlocked the gate to let her out. It was almost 8pm by the time we left finally left the grounds – nearly three hours after the Summer Palace closed to visitors!

Summer Palace photos are posted here.

View of Pudong skyline from the Bund in Shanghai

Something we noticed walking around the streets of Shanghai: Beijing touts ask passing foreigners if they want "dvdscdsvcds?" The question from touts in Shanghai however, is "watch(hand)bag?" often accompanied by a fake Rolex being pulled out and emphatically shaken in front of your face. Fact.

I'm back from Shanghai, a city which the Lonely Planet calls, I kid you not, the "Whore of the Orient" (it's on pg. 267, Lonely Planet China, 2005). It rained most of the time but we didn't let the weather, uh, dampen our spirits. The city is huge and much more modern than Beijing with plenty of shiny skyscrapers, especially in Pudong - a commercial area on the east side of the Huangpu River - which is where we stayed for a few nights in the highest hotel in the world... the lobby is on the 54th floor! Craig took a sensational photo of the view from our floor looking down to lobby level.

It was a good trip; we went to the Shanghai Museum and Shanghai Art Museum, got lost in the French Concession district, and battled crowds and crowds of people on Nanjing Rd. South, along the Bund, and even in Shanghai Aquarium where we saw seals and penguins!

My favourite part was our last morning in the city when the rain finally stopped and we went to Yuyuan Bazaar area (a touristy square with old buildings housing souvenir shops and such) and spent several hours in 豫园 Yuyuan itself - a beautfiul Chinese garden in the city.

My Shanghai flickrset is here.

With all the rain in Shanghai it was nice to return to atypically beautiful weather in Beijing... sunshine and blue skies since Friday. So despite returning to books and studying (exams are looming), the plan for the next few weeks is to take advantage of the fall weather to visit parks and hike a section of the Great Wall. I can't wait!

Wangfujing St lit up for night-time shoppers

October 1st to 3rd is a national holiday celebrating China's National Day. We have no classes, so despite warnings about avoiding travel during this time since masses of Chinese do exactly that, Craig and I are braving the crowds and heading to Shanghai for the week. We leave tomorrow evening on an overnight sleeper train - an approximately 12 hour journey from Beijing to Shanghai.