Weekend at the Wall

This past weekend I attended a hiking trip with Georgia Tech's Outdoor Recreation department along the Great Wall of China!

We awoke early Friday morning, dressed ready to hike.  Stepping out of the doors of the hotel, my fellow adventurers and I loaded into buses amidst a drenching rain.  We headed north, through and past Beijing, for about four hours.  By the time we arrived at our destination, fortunately the rain had ceased!  After a traditional Chinese lunch provided by a local restaurant, we began our hike towards a small village further along the Wall.  The hike on the first day was along a stream that wound between mountains.  The scenery was beautiful!  We arrived in the late afternoon to a small agrestic village.  A family had agreed to feed us, and boy did they feed us!  Everything that was put before us had been grown or raised within a few kilometers of where we sat!  I was quite pleased, especially after a day of hiking!  The sun set on us quickly, and we decided to call it a night shortly afterwards.  We were given a campsite just outside of the village in a pasture, and I was asleep before my head hit the sleeping bag.

Breakfast the next morning was just as wondrous as the previous dinner.  Once we had had our fill, we were given a tour of the village's garden area.  The people of the village all had plots, and they grew assorted vegetables: beans, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, peppers, lettuces, etc.  There was a small stream flowing through the middle of the garden, which, I am guessing, made irrigation easier for them.  The time soon came for us to depart this paradise, however.  Today my group was to hike a treacherous stretch over the Wall.  It was quite a hike, but the views were well worth the effort.  I was lucky to start some really interesting conversations with our Chinese guides about their lives, worldviews, and dreams.  The more I pry (for lack of a better word), the more the Chinese people amaze me with their frankness and openness.  Having grown up in a world entirely different than my own, it was fascinating to discover just how similar many of them were to me in terms of values and morals. After descending from the mountains into an outpost area, we were given the chance to rappel down a 50 meter dam.  It was nerve-wracking to cross over the top and let go of the ladder, but once I got going it was so much easier than I had imagined!  Dinner that night was an experience I will not soon forget; I ate donkey, chicken tongue, and fermented tofu.  The donkey tasted just like beef to me, the tongue was barely big enough to have a taste (it was mostly just chewy), and the fermented tofu was horrendous.  After a campfire that featured my singing more karaoke more than I would like to admit, we all went to bed.

We awoke on Sunday morning to a steady drizzle.  By the time we sat down for breakfast, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and we were strongly considering cutting our losses and heading back to Tianjin early.  And many of my fellow hikers did; one bus left right after lunch.  However, a few of us wanted a little more hiking along a "challenge section".  The guides that we were with refused to allow us to go on the Wall if it was wet, as the section that we were wanting to go on was dangerously slick. Soon, however, the story changed-- the rain stopped-- and we were given permission to go ahead.  We weren't even at the Wall before the rain had picked up again, however.  That is when the guides officially called it a day.  We were given the chance during one of the breaks in the rain to snap some shots on top of on of the sections, but we were forbidden from going any further.  We headed back wet and disappointed, though I was content in knowing that I had done everything I could to see as much of the Wall as I could!

Looking back, it is weird to think that I have now seen-- I have now peed off of-- the Great Wall of China!  This summer is bringing so many memorable experiences my way, and it is such an exhilarating feeling to do things that I have never dreamed of before!

Thanks for reading everyone!  This weekend I head 30 minutes north by train to BEIJING. Lots to do, and only four days fit it all in!  We'll see!