The Great Wall

We have officially thrown chronology to the wind for the sake of expediency. We took a great trip to Hong Kong at the end of February, and we'll have to get that post in here sooner than later, but I have been on some business travel and have jotted down some thoughts I'll try to share in quick fashion.

I went to Beijing for some market research on March 3 - 5. While in Beijing, I had a gap of time between the end of market research and an evening business meeting. I arranged with the hotel to find a driver to take me to the Great Wall. I only had my dress shoes, but all of the photos I had seen of people on the wall were more or less on flat ground, so no big deal. I changed into jeans and off I went with my backpack and laptop, knowing that I could get some work done while in the car out and back (it's about an hour drive - 43 miles - and could be longer depending on traffic).

I also had an old frommers guidebook that described in very simplistic fashion each of the sections of the wall one could visit. So I tried to communicate with my non-english speaking driver about what section of the wall would be best to visit, thinking he would a) have an opinion or some advice, and b) that somehow I would understand what he was saying. It was kind of funny, I must say. He finally called someone who gave him the word 'famous' in english so we could tell me that the two we narrowed it down to (the closest ones) were both very famous. We finally decided on the closest, JuYongGuan, that I had read in the guidebook was a wall at least a little less traveled than the touristy BaDaLing.

When we arrived I realized the conundrum I had put myself in by bringing my laptop and computer pack. While I know people here are more trustworthy than many yankees, I also have had a blackberry picked off my belt since our arrival in China, and didn't want to run the risk of losing my laptop to the driver I had only just met, so I decided what the heck, shoulder the load and off you go. This decided, I left the car toward the Great Wall with my laptop on my back. Valerie, valera.

I wasn't quite prepared for the sight that greeted me once I got onto the wall: a seemingly neverending series of steps that went all the way up this mountain and had a few guardhouses or sentry posts or whatever along the way. I now understood the phrase "climbing the great wall." I thought that just meant climbing up some steps to get onto the thing, but it really means climbing a mountain on the top of the wall.

I looked up the seemingly unsurmountable stairs and started plodding up them. Plodding is exactly what I did, my dress shoes clicking on each step as I picked up first one foot and then another and step by step made my way up the mountainside. There's an object lesson here, lots of them that I took away, but one has to do with perspective and setting goals based on what you can see. I could see about six stations, that would take me to the top of the mountain, and it would proffer a great view.

That goal started to get challenged after the first few hundred steps. Some of these steps were at least knee high and others were mid thigh. At this point my backpack felt like it was 50 pounds or so and as I kept huffing and puffing up each new set of stairs, station 3 and station 4 found me feeling like I would either throw up or hyperventilate. Ok, I exaggerate, but only somewhat.

At about station 5 I could see that the one I had set my sights on (6, it turns out) was not indeed the top, but just another station. I thought oh well, six sounds good, I'll be lucky to make it there anyway.

Well, I made it to six, and of course there was more wall to scale, but you can't go that far and not finish it, so at long last I summited the highest of the wall guardposts at station 9. It was an incredible sight from the top, though a little hazy, still the mountains around me and a feeling of accomplishment. One of the major wonders of the world...

Of course I have now spoken to someone who plans on running the Great Wall Marathon, which includes about 6 miles on the wall, up and down mountainsides, so I feel a little sheepish with this confession of how challenging it was, but it was truly one of my "Most Memorable Experiences" you look back on in life. Maybe I can now fill out that Facebook 25 facts list or something. And at least the driver was impressed when I told him I had made it to the 9th station - he went out and bought me a celebratory water. ;)

I made it back for my meeting and then walked over late to see Ti'anamen Square and the gateway to the Forbidden City. Enjoyed Peking Duck as well on my first night to town. Hopefully I'll be back to Beijing on vacation so I can spend some real time there. I didn't even see the Bird's Nest!*

* p.s. the Chinese are very indifferent to the Bird's Nest as you can imagine. They don't know it by that name, and aren't interested in seeing it. Ask about the gymnastics and it's a different story...