The Great Wall!

March 29, 2007, Beijing, later

About 10:00 AM we got picked up for a ride to the Great Wall at Ba Da Ling, maybe the most familiar Great Wall stop for foreigners. It had been raining and was cool so the crowds weren’t too great when we arrived. Dr. Ma and I set off up the East Mountain – the far side from the more tourist oriented area, and we were soon huffing and puffing! It’s hard to describe the climb in meaningful terms. It is very steep, and while there are steps most of the way, they vary wildly and suddenly. There can be a series of four inch steps, then suddenly maybe twenty inches for a while, then four, then a series of twelve inch steps, then something else. The big steps are a big effort! The variation is pretty hard on the knees on the way down because no one step is exactly what you expect.

We got to the top of the first big climb and I think I would have been fine with going to get a drink and heading home. I believe that neither of us wanted to be the one to suggest such a thing, so we went along across the ridge tops, up and down, to the very highest point on the east side, then back down to the lowest level. Again, we were both done in, but both talking bravely about the West Mountain, so off we went. Soon, little kids were passing us and laughing. Old ladies and men were making jokes about us. Turtles were shaking their heads.

Actually, we were fine, and no one really passed us during the entire big circle. We did get where we had to sit and rest fairly often, and it was a good thing we brought drinks along! The whole trip took us about two and a half hours, but that included stopping so groups of students could have pictures taken with me and so on. The whole thing is a social experience, like almost everything here.

I only saw a couple of people who I thought might be Americans. There were hardly any Caucasian people at all and most were Russians. Everyone was having a nice time out in the fresh air – and all were getting more exercise than they planned on!

The scope of the work that produced this is sort of unimaginable. All the materials had to come from somewhere, and not a lot of it was on these mountain sides. I’m not sure how often enemies ever breached this wall, but they had to bad, bad, people to get that done. The thing would be easily defended because it is all on wild terrain, and even if someone did get up on top, a push with one finger would send them careening down the steps to a bad end.

We had lunch in what Dr. Ma and his friend described as a “farmer restaurant” in a little settlement just on the Beijing side of the Wall, and it was great. Rustic at best, posters of the Chairman everywhere, and only one foreigner on site. Beijing area cuisine has lot of chiles in many dishes, and I love it all. What we know as the “Imperial” dishes, imperial chicken, imperial shrimp, fall into this category. A meat or seafood, some vegetables, usually scallions, peanuts, and hot little red chiles.

Now - a nap!