Day 14 - The China Challenge

originally written: Tuesday, November 24, 2009

(The Great Wall of China)

There’s another Chinese opera going on outside my window tonight. A fitting soundtrack for writing about my experiences at The Great Wall of China this past weekend. On Saturday, after our time in Tiananmen Square, we met with our driver for the day, John. He was quite a character! John spoke pretty good conversational English (having mostly learned from his foreign customers) and provided us with great entertainment all day long. He also knew the ins and outs of the tourist hot spots in Beijing and even helped us bargain with shopkeepers to get the best deals. John drove us to the Mutianyu site of the Great Wall, about 1.5 hours from Beijing City. On the way we inevitably had to stop for a potty break (there were four female passengers) and John brought us to the sketchiest squat toilets I’ve seen in China (so far). I couldn’t help myself and just had to take a photo, I’ve included it in this email. Yes, it’s the one that looks like three graves ready to be filled!

We arrived at The Great Wall at around 10:30am and John showed us where to purchase tickets, etc… We took a gondola up to the top of the cliffs where the wall was. It’s hard to communicate in words how I felt while walking along the wall. The history behind it is so dense and just the magnificence of it all was a lot to take in. Photos cannot truly capture what it’s like, but they can give you some idea. Just to imagine people hundreds of years ago standing at the bottom of those cliffs looking up and saying, “Yeup, just at the top of those cliffs there, we’re going to build a massive wall.” And all those thousands of lives that were lost during its construction - you can’t help but feel emotional while walking along.

After our walk, we took toboggans down the cliff. It was quite surreal actually - something so child-like following such an emotional moment. Once we’d reached the bottom, we joined John in a game of Chinese hacky-sack (similar to the one we play in North America). A great ending to our visit to the Great Wall!