Wall!

I want to make a Southpark reference right now really badly. But, I'll keep the joke to myself and probably Ian.

Stupid Mongolians.

According to Chinese tradition, I am now a man - because I have now climbed the Great Wall of China. And I think the Chinese saying about being a man is probably true. Because if I see another set of stairs, all I think about is the stairs of the Great Wall.

So many stairs. ... so many stairs.

We decided to visit the Simatai part of the wall. There are several named parts of the wall, because it was built over a large period of time. The most touristy part is named Badaling - and it's completely restored. Simatai is a more mountainous part, less touristy, and probably the most amazing thing I have seen.

Simatai was built during the Ming Dinasty. You gotta learn your Dinasties to follow this blog. I recommend checking wikipedia. Anyways, to keep it simple, this wall is about 500 years old. There's a few other parts around here that were built much eariler and later than the Simatai Wall.

Here's an example. This picture is from the Simatai wall looking at another part (and another name). when I got to the top of the wall, you could see this section into the horizon. It was absolutely stunning. It's completely uninterrupted for miles.

We left Beijing about 9:30 a.m. and got to the Wall about noon. It's outside of Beijing by a considerable amount. It's very interesting to see the Chinese people in Beijing compared to the people in the more rural parts of China. It's like black and white.


This picture is from about the middle of Simatai. in one the guard towers. Some of the towers are in perfect condition, some are ruined. however, they all have a 3x3 grid pattern inside. Guards lived in the tower.

Inside the wall, was ancient and modern Chinese (and English) graffiti. A set of Chinese students walking with us said it was very common for the guards to carve their names into the walls (and also the tourists). While I couldn't tell who was the modern or ancient graffiti, it was still interesting.


continued....




At the wall, there was a group of peasents and farmers trying to sell goods. Every white person who seemed to go up the wall was basically followed by someone all the way up the wall. While annoying, our lady in very broken English told her a little about her background and where she worked (she pointed to a collective farm in the horizon). I found her interesting - a middle aged woman who literally climbed the wall several times a day to sell a book or postcards to tourists. I bought overpriced postcards from here (paid 25 yuan ($3), when they were worth probably around 10 yuan). I felt ripped off, but these people literally live off of the difference between 50 US cents and 1 US Dollar. It's not going to kill my budget if I overpay in some place. Plus, she climbed a wall that wore me out. That's worth 10 yuan in itsself.

If something I am learning about China, and basically Asia in general - everyone has a purpose. This is even more so in the PRC, where state owned enterprises make you wonder why there's someone being paid for this job. But, no matter, they do a job.

At the very top of Simatai is a whole part of the wall that literally is built on a razor sharp mountain. This part of the wall was very broken and obviously it's not the best thing to climb. There was a sign saying that if you crossed it, you had to pay a fine of 200 yuan. Johannes, Me and a few other tourists climbing with us joked about how this sign seemed out of place and there was no way that it would ever be enforced.

And then a man came out from behind a section of the wall. He was very friendly... but yea... he's got the worst commute in the world. But probably one of the best office views of anyone.

Please Mind the Gap - And Climb the Wall, it's worth it.

Ken