Everyone knows what the Great Wall of China looks like right? It stretches for over 2500kms across China, originally built to keep out the Mongol Horde. Now it's one of the best known sights in the world, crowded with tourists, souvenir shops, nicely restored to it's previous imposing grandeur. This is true in many places along the Great Wall. On Badaling, Mutenyu, and lesser so on the impressive 14 km hike from Jinshaling to Simitai. But there is another Wall. We found it. Setting out 3 hours from Beijing we got two buses, then haggled with a 'taxi' man to bring us a few hundred kms out of his way to get us to Goubekou. This is where we would find ourselves walking along the oldest and not at all preserved part of the Great Wall. 2,500 years ago these stones were laid down, and today we can trek for miles, weeks and months in fact, along their trail. I wasn't prepared at all for how worn away the Wall would be in these parts. You see no-one really comes here, there are no tour buses, and thankfully, no tourists means no pedallers! This is a blessing. For anyone who has walked along the other more crowded parts of the Great Wall, where being harassed by 'mongolian farmer women' that follow you for 8kms to sell postcards, having the whole place to yourself is amazing. And peaceful. Here your imagination can soar. Mongols can be attacking, marching armies over the mountain passes to lay seige to your mighty Wall. You could be a Chinese soldier looking out on a clear day (before the current days of polution and progress) to distant mountains where gods and spirits live. Me, I brought my guitar. Heading up the trail on the 'Tiger', a 1,200mt. climb hauling a 10kg pack and a guitar was fun.
I went to the Great Wall with Joe (my guide on this one), Em and Spring (the coolest guy with the coolest name!). Joe was to blame for me bringing my guitar along, on leaving the hostel he said 'Hey bring your guitar!', I thought,'Won't it be too awkward on the way?'But no. It was coming for sure. What I didn't count on was that I wouldn't be leaving it somewhere before we climbed until sunset...Oh no, I was bringing it all the way. The drive with the local guy was terrifying. Really. There were a couple of near misses with big trucks, and oncoming vehicles also careening down this dusty winding death track of doom. I was in the front seat so I got a full view of what was ahead as he overtook on sharp bends into traffic, and breaked so hard we were all flung forward stopping just short of collision. Still we made it! And wow were we happy to be there in one unbruised piece! So, Goubekou. It's basically in the middle of nowhere. Perfect. This was the plan. Going from Beijing to this quiet village in the mountains, surrounded by the Great Wall was a shock. In a good way. Goubekou is the kind of place where you walk down the main street and find three old guys are watching your every move, from their sentry positions. When you pass them they stare you down, the only way to break this Mexican Stand-Off is usually to draw your guns. Or you can try smiling at them and the old 'Ni hao!'. This works. They'll smile at the weird foreigner and wave you on. The funny thing is they go back to lookout duty, this is what they do. We met more people, female sentries, all sitting on the street chilling out, talking, checking out whats happening today. Then we walk past. They all stop what they're doing and watch us. We're bound to do something amazing. A dog followed us barking. That was it! Joe wanted to show us around some local houses. Outside one was a very old lady, sitting lookout. While Joe was talking to her, her neighbour comes across the street looking his best, walking tall (he was over 70 for sure) with a big pink flower for her from his garden. Sweet.
Trekking through corn fields, and looking out over an unspoilt vista of summer flowers, crops and green hills, where the Great Wall snaked its way up and up, I realized I was in a place that hadn't been wrecked yet by industry. As I travelled around China, out of the train window all I could see were pylons and factories pumping smoke and unkown pollutants out into the atmosphere. In Korea, there is a phenomenon called 'the Yellow Dust' which blows all the way down from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. It wouldnt be that harmful normally, no more than a basic sandstorm, that obscures the sun at dusk giving an orange glow to everything. However, because the yellow sands also pass over China's industrial; wasteland on their way to Korea, Koreans are really worried about what toxins and heavy chemicals it could contain. Everyone has to wear masks on the streets, and many health problems are attributed to this kind of pollution. Way to go China.
With this in mind, hiking through the fields and hills around this small village, which could be anywhere in the world, I coud really appreciate the peace and quiet here. We climbed the Tiger, so named because it really does resemble a crouching tiger, the Wall leading up its steep slope. At sunset I was playing Jack Johnson songs on the Great Wall of China, with a perfect 360 degree panorama of mountains. Looking along the Wall's route we could see where we began near the village so far below, and how the Wall lead up to distant hills, and into the horizon as far as we could see. It would be nice to think that we had walked that far! But lugging a pack and a guitar this was ok. Back down to the village for the night. It turned out that Joe was searching for our accomodation for the night in all of these elderly people's houses. In the end we found one, the main guesthouse (and only one) in this village. We came across a river that was lit up by a glowworm, the first one I had ever seen, I carried it around for a while lighting up my palm, then put it back! They gace us enough food for an army and we got a good night's sleep with the sounds of the hillsides knocking me out like a light.
Day 2.
Next morning there was breakfast for an army. Then onto the Dragon. That is what this seciton of the Great Wall is called, as it twists and winds it's way through the interlocking hills. Making out way up broken dusty trails, and through fields of intenstly stinging plants, we and our burning legs made it to the crumbling remains of the oldest section of the Great Wall of China. We only saw one other person up there that day, a lone hiker way off in the distance. The magnitude of this structure is astounding. I had no trouble imagining the Mongols attacking the wall, seeing them coming across the hills from miles away and waiting, ready for the onslaught. The book I had with me on the trip was about Marco Polo, and although on his travels betweem 1271 and 1295 he never wrote about the Great Wall of China, probably because it wasn't very important even to the Chinese just then, he most definately had seen it, and most likely walked where I did. Out in the open, with mountains all around, in the ruins of civilisation, I cn feel a strong affinity with Marco Polo, who at my age was travelling this same region of the world, exploring it for the first time. While I'm not the first person here, I can still feel the thrill of discovery, after all, its new to me. In life we should always seek new adventurous experiences, that's what life is made up of. Trekking along the Dragon we passed more than then towers, most in ruins, and one was a captains tower, much bigger than the others. This is where we took a break, on the roof looking out at the Wall stretching before us and behind. You really could keep going for years, saying to yourself, as I did, look one more tower on the horizon! The one on the horizon always looks more interesting, or maybe the view from there will beat the one you've got now! Its hard to go back. The spirit of adventure, of an intrepid 5 year old explorer had taken hold of me (in fact if you ask my parents they'll confirm that I've always been like this!) and I was going to go all the way! Very few people have completed the Great Wall hike, at more than 2,500 kms it is a serious walk. One Englishman has hiked most of it and many Chinese hikers have attempted it. It would take at least 2 years of hard slogging through broken rubble, overgrowth, precipitous falls and near-vertical climbs. But man, would it be worth it! True, you might get pretty tired of looking at the never-ending Wall ahead and behind, with so many towers to go, dotting the mountain tops and running along cliffs, into deep valleys, through towns and villages, desert terrain and open plains. It would be a good adventure, but I would prefer a more varied path, it would feel a bit like walking Route 66. So, looking back at the misty Tiger rising up, over the Dragon, we made the decision to go back to reality. I was out-voted! Coming here throughout the seasons would be fantastic, especially winter, which is harsh this far north. Snow covering the mountains and the Great Wall icy and treacherous winding its way through a frozen world. In spring the hillsides would be blossoming with every color, and autumn's transformation would explode across the countryside with everything turning red and orange. The Wall will be the same, more or less. If parts of it crumble anymore there won't be anything left of it! Thankfully some people are busy helping to keep it as is, and even better, William Lindesay started a group to protect, clean up, and perserve the Great Wall of China so it lasts another while. Its lasted this long without help, but the millions of tourists that pour onto it like invading tribes from the Steppe are wearing it down more than a thousand years of the elements, and so if no-one helps out, it will probably fall down pretty soon.
