Yesterday was a good long day, with an early start to meet a friend and co-worker of Alex’s, who took us out for an excursion on the Great Wall. We went to a section 120 km from Beijing, less popular with tourists than other spots, but still subject to a sizable number of people, and not far enough out to escape the persistent haze.
It took two or three hours for us to get out of the city and then wind our way up through a place called ‘Rainbow Trout Valley’ to our destination, called Jian Kou. It is a particular tower on the wall which is lower than the towers on either side, so making a shape like the string of bow when drawn back with an arrow — ‘Jian’ 箭 means arrow, while ‘kou’ 扣 means held back. (Etymology of the 扣 character: a hand over a mouth.) We parked along with many other cars on the side of the road in the village and paid a couple kwai to a picturesque old man in a Mao jacket — a standard practice, in return for which the farmers keep an eye on the cars. The trail went up through fields still bare, past dry corn stalks piled up on the side, then up through then trees beginning to bud out. The view, which would surely have been striking, was obscured by the omnipresent white haze, but everyone on the trail was in high spirits. Occasionally someone would start whooping, and answering yells would greet them from further up the hillside. There were even a few rounds of song, with one group starting a verse, and another group finishing it.

I got ahead of the guys for a while and got a lot of pretty surprised looks — a white girl, climbing up to the wall by herself? One young woman, also looking surprised, said ‘Hello’ to me as we passed; I said ‘Hello’ back and kept going, wondering what exactly went through her head.

As they say, we aren’t in Kansas anymore, and what’s more, it’s a long way from REI. Many of those climbing were young, but most were outfitted more for street-walking than for hiking. I saw a lot of men in slacks and leather shoes, and, though I didn’t see any women in heels, I wouldn’t have been terribly surprised. It seemed that about half of those making the climb up to the wall stopped at that point, had some food, and went back down.

We continued to the north, through various towers, and up a stretch that was, according to Alex’s friend, rated as ‘two stars’ for steepness, which brought to mind the Angel’s Landing trail in Zion National Park, though with a shorter fall awaiting. That and there were brick stairs, but no chains to hold on to.

A bit later there was a ‘three stars’ section, where the stairs had entirely disintegrated, leaving an irregularly surfaced rock wall, which we clambered up one at a time. We had to wait for quite a while as the people before us went up, and then a group coming back made their way down. First a man came down, then a young woman started coming down, then stopped and tossed down her backpack and then her gloves to the man, who then climbed partway back up to help direct her where to put her feet. Those waiting at the bottom where all talking amongst each other, and began laughing — Alex’s friend translated for us: ‘First the backpack, then the gloves fell from heaven — next will be the girl!’

I made sure not to look down on my way up; on the way back we took a side trail that circumvented the wall and both steep sections. We ended up turning around before we reached a section that would have been ‘five stars’ steep — I can’t think what it would have been like!

Today has been a quiet one, particularly because it is raining, an unusual occurrence for Beijing, which has caused umbrellas to sprout like multi-colored mushrooms, and all the taxis to be taken. We went out this afternoon anyway, to a cafe near several of the universities, which turned out to be almost exclusively filled with white people studying Chinese, which, of course, was what we spent the afternoon there doing. We had dinner with another friend of Alex’s, who showed a Yunnan (southern province) restaurant, an unassuming hole in the wall with cheap plastic tablecloths and delicious food. We had some sautéed greens, fried banana, potato balls, fried chicken, pineapple rice, and a mixed dish of bell peppers and ground meat and something that may have been a mushroom or root vegetable, I’m really not sure. The pineapple rice actually came in a pineapple, which was super tasty, and I want to try making it sometime. I’m still kicking myself for not taking a photo, but we took a business card for the place, and I’m sure we’ll be back.