Day 8The Great wallI woke up excited to see the Great Wall. The only problem is that I had a total of 5 hours of sleep. I got back to my hotel at midnight and settled in until 1 and then I had to get up at 6 to catch a cab to where the whole team is meeting. Yes we are all going as a team to see the Mu Tian Yu Great Wall, which is not the super touristy Great Wall that everyone goes to. The whole team meets at the office and of course they are all there when I arrive. They have rented a Bus to drive us there. We all pile on the bus and I sit in the back.
Everyone is real excited, most of them have never seen the Great Wall. Every time I go to a new place with someone on the team, it seems like they have never been to these historical places. If they were just out my back door I would have gone. The bus ride starts out real loud with everyone talking. The bus swerving to miss taxi's and pedestrians. About 30 minutes down the road, I notice that almost everyone is sleeping. I am not sure how they are doing this because the bus driver is practicing for a slalom race. Not to mention that the roads on the outskirts are less maintained and when we hit the potholes it feels like the rear end is going to fall off the bus.
I have noticed a trend with the Chinese I have worked with. They are able to take a nap in the middle of the day with chaos around them. While working in the office I would see people put their heads down and take a 15 minute nap. There is no way that I could ever do that. But apparently they can also do this on a death bus ride.
I watch out the window because this is the farthest I have been outside the city. I see people living in Canvas tens. I even see homes with roof's that are made out of tree branches. People riding horses is more common out here. Actually it is more common to have the horse pulling something while the person walks beside it. I see farms where people are... well farming. There are some rice fields and people wearing the traditional Chinese hat. Cool, but not really that much different from Eastern Washington. The land reminds me of the farming in Western Washington. All of my pictures of the bus ride turned out blurry. It was tough to get pictures because it was overcast and semi-dark, which is not a good combo for taking pictures while moving.
As we drive I notice a waterway that we are following. This waterway reminds me of the rivers in LA, all concrete. I ask someone about it and i am told that it is the water for Beijing. Yeah the water supply runs right by the road and next to all of these homes. The water does look clean, but it just seems to be out in the open. No wonder why everyone says "Don't Drink the water".
The last part of the journey is through some small towns and up the hills. The great Wall rides the ridge of some small mountains. We exit the bus and walk through some small vendor shops. Same crap just a different place. But of course everyone wants my attention and for some reason they mus pull me towards their wondrous wears. There is no way I am going to buy anything on the way to the great wall. Maybe afterwards. Check out the pipe of this guy that watches over the entrance to the Great Wall:
Tickets need to be purchased to go to the great wall and there is a gondola that we can also ride in. The company i am with purchases the tickets for entry and the gondola ride. Suddenly there is a bunch of conversation, I of course only understand the tone, but is sounds like some people have some good viewpoints. The conversation ends and they tell me that we are going to hike up to the top and take the Gondola down. I am confused, why would anybody want to do this? It is hot and sticky out. Isn't the purpose of the gondola to go up in? Not down. People are already walking and I do not want to stir the pot so I keep my mouth shut.
The first stop is a statue of some great warrior general. Nobody can tell me who it is, but they are seem happy to see it.
The second stop, all within 50 meters of the start of the trail is this slide that people can ride the mountain down. Why the heck am I not taking the gondola up and the slide down. This makes no sense.
Stairs and more stairs, I am told that it is 3Km to the great wall. I figure that there will be some flat points but there really are not that many. This seems to be a giant staircase to the top of the Mountain. How the heck did all of those soldiers do this everyday. I am sweating like a pig, but for some reason I am not as bad off as some people. One of the girls is having real trouble. When I ask what is going on, I am told that she is white like paper. I kind of laugh at that because I am always white like paper. I am asked to slow down, funny because I am way out of shape and I thought I was going pretty slow. Must be my long legs. We are all sweating, and I here grumblings, I ask my friend (who is doing quite well because he is in pretty good shape) what they are saying and he says that they are wondering why we did not take the gondola up.
We arrive at the Great Wall. It sure did not seem like 3Km, but that is what they are telling me. I catch a map of the wall and we have a long ways to go along the ridge of these mountains (big hills really). The wall is about 30 feet tall and probably 30 feet thick. There are towers all along the ridge. These towers are to signal each other if they are being attacked. On the Mongol side of the wall it is a steep ravine, actually it is pretty steep on the side we hiked up. It is easily seen how this wall can be defended with no problem. The wall is not flat as I have said, it goes along the ridge line of the mountains. The stones that we are walking on are well worn, and very slick and this is without water on them. There are some places where there are stairs but for the most part it is just sloping smooth bricks.
About every 8 feet is a place to shoot arrows from. I am not sure what these are called, excuse my ignorance. I did ask but I only received the Chinese name for them. These slots are always straight up and down, even on the sloped parts of the wall. In between are holes at ankle level. I am not sure what these are for. I guess they are for either pouring boiling oil, or relieving oneself.
We are all pretty tired and we take a couple of breaks to enjoy the scenery. Yes it is foggy but the hills around us are beautiful. So lush and green. The wall is always fading off in the distance, which makes the scene even more beautiful. How amazing it must have been to see the soldiers walking this wall. Patrolling hour after hour for 100's (1000's even) of years. I take a picture of the group that I came with. These people are all real nice and genuinely want to be my friend. They all try and talk with me and they laugh at my jokes. They probably don't understand them, but they laugh anyways. It is probably best that they don't understand my lame attempt at English-Chinese comedy. They are fun and besides the amount that I am sweating, I am having fun hanging out with them. BTW all of them have a Masters, and some even have PHD's. Here is a picture of them goofing around:
Some of the guard towers are open to move around in. They are not very comfortable, they are basically just narrow hallways and stairs to to the top of the tower. Some of them have small rooms, but they are in the middle of the hallway. I am not sure where the soldiers slept, but these towers would not make a very nice place to live.
As we walk the wall there are a couple of cool things. One was a cannon mounted. When I asked about the cannon, they said it was to kill the Japanese. There is still some old bad blood there. Still it was cool to see the cannon. There were a couple of steep parts that had not been repaired and you could see the places where people place their feet on their climb. I started to examine the grout that was used for parts of the wall. I asked about it and I was told that it was made from white rice. I am not exactly sure how they did this, but the bricks have been stuck together for a long time. I guess that is why grandpa used to say it was "good for you, it will stick to your ribs".
One of the sad things that I noticed was that some areas had graffiti. When I actually noticed it, I was surprised to see that I could read most of it. Stupid Americans defacing the Great Wall, What a joke. I did see Chinese characters carved in to the brick as is evidenced by the previous picture. We are pretty good at screwing up our own national monuments why the heck to we have to screw with other countries? I was rather embarrassed, and mad.
Here is a quick shot of my ass coming up the mountain:
Jokes aside, this is how the people would bring the ice cold water and trinkets up the mountain to sell.
The wall is indeed a Great Wall. Who said that? Well I was not the first one, but I agree with it completely. Nixon is where the quote was from. The wall is amazing and just walking around and over it you feel the history and the awesomeness of it. It really is everything that you have heard about it. I am glad that I was able to experience it. I would like to see other sections of the wall. I only saw one small section and there are other parts that are in different areas of the country. I believe that the wall is over 3000 Km. I only saw about 1/1000th of the wall. This thing is huge.
We took the gondola down, it was need and wow we were sure high. If you go I recommend taking it up the hill not down. I think that the walk impresses you that the wall is on top of the mountain, but the gondola can probably give you the same feeling.
We still have to walk through the vendors and I kind of want to buy a couple of things. I stop and my resident bargainer begins to barter with the people. We walk away from a couple of the people. She finally says that I do not want to purchase anything here. I value her opinion, but I still want a T-shirt that has the great wall on it. My friend decides that he wants to talk to another vendor. We stop and start the haggle process. She comes back and works the dude over. We are down to $1 and I am more than happy to pay that and so is my friend. She wants a better price. That is when things get heated. She grabs my arm and says we are leaving. Okay, if you say so. We start walking and the vendor is yelling stuff and asking me to come back in English. Nobody stops or turns around so I follow suit. I ask my friend what the hell the vendor is saying. He says that he is calling her some pretty bad names. And saying that she should know better, she is Chinese. I want to beat the hell out of the dude, but I am in another country so I just run up to her and thank her over and over. She tells me that it is no big deal, he is only a vendor and beneath her class. Wow what an eye opener. I still thank her for all of her help, she put up with that crap for me. How cool is that?
We get on the bus and I am in for one more treat. Apparently there is a really good BBQ place down the road. I am all over that. We show up and there is a cool pool with a bunch of fish swimming in it. I am admiring them when suddenly the old lady next to me puts in her net and scoops out two. She drops them on the cement and grabs a big stick and wham they are both dead. Cool as heck. I ask if that is our dinner and I am told yes. These fish went straight onto the BBQ. Sweet fresh fish. I can't get sick off of them. These pictures happened in real time. I was just standing there when all of this happened.
Next we sit down at a large table and wait for our food. It arrives. First is some slimy mushroom dish. The lazy susan spins and stops at me. Everybody is looking at me. Damn, how the hell am I going to pick that stuff up with my chop sticks. Oh well just give it a try. I do it and I even make it look easy. Everybody watchs while i eat and when I say it is good, the table moves to the next person. Next comes this weird contraption. First is the heater in a basket like thing. The heater is lit and a pot is hung from the handle. It is soup and the heater is to keep it warm. The lazy susan spins and the thing stops in from of me. Everyone is watching again, I guess they want my approval, and this is the polite thing to do. I would much rather they let me eat in peace, but this is their custom so I must adhere to it. As I reach over to grab some stiff out of the bowl, I am told it is chicken. Cool I like chicken. I reach in, and as I do so I notice a big piece of meat, Hmmm maybe I shoudl grab that. As I look a little closer, something just does not look right. I decide that I will just grab some of the vegtable stuff because it looks easier to eat. I grab some, and it is long and curly. I eat it and proclaim the dish good. My friend then grabs the hunk of meat that I was about to grab, bud did not. He pulls out a whole chicken head. I was being watched, the polite thing to do was not flinch. I stare but then I turn away and start conversation with my other neighbor. I did watch the dish go around and several others pull out heads also. Woah dude, I am not sure if I can handle that dish. I am told that what I ate was some of the insides of a chicken. Hey it was not too bad. The most fasinating thing was watching the brains get sucked out of the heads. There is a whole art to that, especially with chop sticks. here is the dish I was talking about.
Dinner goes great and I enjoy almost everything. There was only one dish that I tried just once. I am full and we have a ways to get back to the office. We pile into the bus and begin our travels. Everyone falls asleep, and as if on queue, they wake up and ask the bus to pull over. They get out and say goodbye. Some of them live pretty far out. But it is interesting to see the neighborhoods that they get out in. One of them I am not even sure where she lived because there were no houses or apartments anywhere near by. It has been a long day with hardly any sleep and I have to go to work tomorrow, so I take a taxi back to my hotel and crash out at 9pm.
