June
17
2010
By Amy Smithers
We stopped in a small village and picked up a tiny, grinning, 70-year-old Chinese woman. Then our driver (who had minimal regard for the correct side of the road to drive on) dropped us off on an empty country road surrounded by brush. That's when I started to get excited.
It's only when travelling that abandonment in a barren landscape seems like an exciting and adventurous idea. To be fair, we weren't wandering without purpose. We followed our tiny Chinese grandma into the grove of cherry blossom trees and began our climb up to the Great Wall.
The Great Wall of China winds its serpentine way through the hills for a staggering 5,500 miles; it's a perfect opportunity to visit a major world tourist site while avoiding the pesky tourists, if you choose your section of crumbling bricks carefully. Avoid the major reconstructed parts such as Juyongguan and Badaling, and find a guide who will take you to an unrestored portion of the wall further outside of Beijing.
Wear good shoes—there are no steps on the outlying segments of the wall, just heaps of stones that appear to have been churned up from the ground by angry gods. If ever we got discouraged, however, feeling that the path was too treacherous and the rocks too unstable, we just looked to our wind-weathered guide. Like a little mountain goat, she was very slow but very steady, making the whole trek look like a leisurely Sunday stroll. Complete with hands folded comfortably behind her back. If she was still forging onward, what were we to complain about? Nothing at all, really, especially when we reached the tower summit. With curling wall stretching literally as far as the eye can focus, it's worth a little huffing and puffing.
And for those serious athletes who would pooh pooh my trek as a simple walk for wimps, there's an alternative for you too. Join the ranks of the only other visitors we encountered on our walk—the Great Wall marathon runners. We watched a handful of brave (or perhaps merely foolish) souls training for the race the following weekend; attempting to jog along sections that we had to use both hands and feet to scale.
I prefer to do my running on decidedly flatter terrain, thank you. Though perhaps when I hit age 70, if my balance is feeling just right, I'll give that run another consideration.
Amy Smithers climbed up and down a section of the Great Wall that not a single soul could (or would) tell her the name of. If you want the names of the people who can take you there, however, just get in touch with her. And check out our trip planning site for more Asian inspiration.