The Great Wall
We are staying in a lovely hostel on the Da Zha Lan Jie pedestrian street called Leo Hostel (Polly we had unfortunately paid up for 5 nights here before we got your guest book message so haven’t seen your Red Lantern). The hostel is very pleasant with two different premises. We are staying in a 15 bed dorm for 45 RMB a night, about 3 pounds, its clean and quite sizeable. But the best thing about the hostel is the army of friendly staff and some of the tours that they organize. One such tour is the trip to the ’secret’ wall.
The Chinese have been restoring certain parts of the wall for some time and there is no denying it looks great. We had the privilege of passing through Badaling Great Wall (The main tourist spot) from the train into Beijing and I got so excited I got my hair caught in the moving fan whilst craning my neck. On the other hand it also becomes so crowded full of people during the day it gives of a very passable impression of an ants nest.
After two and a half hours of typically bum clenching white knuckled driving lunacy we arrived at our destination and looked up to see a spec in the far distance on top of a thickly vegetated mountain and a thin path leading away in front of us. However this was expected as it was a tour of the more adventurous and involved a 40 minute hike straight up through the wildlife. So more amusing to me was when the third minibus pulled up and a large three generation family of Russians starting a age 9 up to 70 got out wearing flip flop, summer dresses and, unfortunately for us, in the case of a fat surly 16 year old son a figure hugging black stringed vest!
The Great Wall of China is called the “Ten thousand Ii Great Wall” in Chinese. In fact, it＇ s more than 6 000 kilometres long. It winds its way from west to east, across deserts, over mountains, through valleys till at last it reaches the sea. It is one of the wonders of the world.It has a history of over twenty centuries. The first part of it was built during the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Warring States Period, more walls were put up to defend the borders of the different kingdoms. It was during the Qin Dynasty that the kingdom of Qin united the dif ferent parts into one empire. To keep the enemy out of his empire, Emperor Qin Shi Huang had all the walls joined up. Thus, the Great Wall came into being.The Wall is wide enough at the top for five horses or ten men to walk side by side. Along the wall are watchtowers, where soldiers used to keep watch. Fires were lit on the the towers as a warning when the enemy came.
Anyway to cut a long story short it was wonderful. The hiking, the peaked ruins of the wall, the views, the company, the meal we got in a tiny chinese village when we got back down and more. There was no one else up there bar us and one lone sales man who surprised us all as we entered one particular crumbling watch tower with ‘wataa’ tee shirr’ beeeer’ and clearly lives up there for the one group a day who passes through!
Today the Great Wall has become a place of interest not only to the Chinese but to people from all over the world. Many of them have come to know the famous Chinese saying: “He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a true man.”
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