Beijing and the Wall

For May holiday 2001 we packed up and decided on a little Beijing adventure. Along with the normal drinking, dancing, shopping and sightseeing...

While it is recognized in China that Mao was a brilliant revolutionary leader yet not the perfect leader he was painted as during his reign, his picture still hangs outside the forbidden city overlooking Tiennamen square.

The once awe-inspiring Forbidden City is now anything but forbidden with thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists visiting everyday. While still amazing, the awe has dwindled with the introduction of souvenir kiosks, sweaty tourists, and even a Starbucks (god they're everywhere). Foreigners (make that whiteys) are still forbidden from passing through the main gates and have a separate entrance.

... we decided to go on a little crazy camping adventure to the Great Wall. Armed with some tents from Nicole's sister who lives in Beijing and a extremely sketchy map drawn on the back of a cocktail napkin we hired a couple of taxis for the 3 hour (maybe) drive out to the mystery location. Convincing two cabbies to go out to some place they had never heard of and then stay the night because it was out in the middle of nowhere was our first obsticle; convincing all of our party to keep going after the fourth hour of passing obscure landmarks, going through thunderstorms, over mountains, and Deliverance-like scenery was the second. The final landmark we were searching for was a water pipeline in a field on our right. Everyone was getting frustrated and there was talk of turning around until our navigator Nicole (who also has no idea where we are going and is staring blankly at the crumpled cocktail napkin in her hand shouts "stop!". To our right is a field with a garden hose attached to wooden posts coming down from the hills like old telephone poles. To our left is dirt road that looks like its had nothing but donkey cart traffic since Mao's day.
"I think this is it." Nicole announces.
What the hell, we turn off after conferring with the second taxi -- the drivers looking at us as if we are insane (some of us are approaching this point). Fifteen minutes down the road we spot a farmer and ask him if the road leads to the Great Wall. Indeed it does!
Ten more minutes and we strike gold. One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Nestled in a small valley is a little village. Ringing the valley a great green hills spanning as far as we can see and snaking along the ridge of the hills, the Great Wall. After a quick dinner in the village, we leave our drivers to stay the night and hike up to the wall, tents and a case of beer in tow. Untouched, untouristed, and unrestored we had found our "Beach".

While most of the Great Wall is crumbling from human erosion, or restored to the point of being unrecognizable for tourists we had found perfect place. Notice the condition of the walls, but also the trees growing in the middle of solid stone.

Our homes for the evening on the wall. Notice the wall snaking up the hills in the background.

One of the regular watch towers and barracks on the wall -- we are the only people here for the evening.

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