The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is Located 70 km
north east of Beijing and takes around 60-70 minutes by bus from Beijing. We
had this trip arranged by a hostel which included entrance cost.
The great wall arises in the distance, faces press to the
windows of the bus with impatient smiles awaiting those images of the wall which
we all know so well to become reality; and now only the thin glass of the mini bus now stands
between us. We enter a large car park and walk through the many stalls selling
everything from miniature great walls to banana pancakes (and everything
in-between) we receive our tickets and
head up to the chairlift (for two people).
The lift rises up to the start of the wall, we decide to not waste any
time and set straight off up the first set of steps to avoid walking in a
group. The steps take you through a watchtower and back down to where the wall
truly comes into view, spreading across the mountains as though they were not
there. We didn’t know what to expect from the wall as images we had seen were
of masses of people all crammed together, pushing their way forwards but this
was not the case here; the wall was empty of bright hiking jackets as far as we
could see.
Along the wall are watchtowers which have steps leading to
the roof, from here you can see for miles in every direction (which is its
purpose after all) the mountains stretch out across in every direction and appear
to go on forever into the faded distance. We keep going and find that the walk becomes
more challenging, the steps increase and mountains fall until they are all
visible in one dramatic scene the higher we climb. The wall ahead leads up to
the highest point so far at a steep angle which makes us take
a break before attempting; we sit for a while which we hadn’t really done so
far as we had focused more on pushing on but the break was much needed and
brought into context just what we were doing.
The pictures which most people have in their minds when
thinking of the great wall could never match the reality of actually being
there, standing on a wall which glides across mountains and disappears out of
its own view because of its colossal scale is something that only reality alone
can make you comprehend just how amazing this human achievement really is.
The steps until this point have gone up then back down
again but the one that we now face doesn’t seem to have a down. We start to
wonder just how far we can go before we will need to head back to catch the
bus...but with the curiosity of what lies over the next peak we keep going. We
are still the only people in view until we climb so high that we spot the
familiar bright coloured jackets from the bus and know that we are not the only
ones who will be late in catching it (at this point it was comforting to know).
We make it to the top of the peak which continues forward
before turning right and going straight up yet another peak (an extremely high
climb at this exhausting point) we consider that we have gone far enough and
that we would end up missing the bus if we climbed the next part but now that
we had come this far it was impossible to turn back, we agreed that this last
peak was going to be the finally part no matter what came next and set off once
more.
We pushed up with what little energy we both had left, not
wanting to see the view until we reached the top (which never seemed to end) until finally we reached it; I turned to see
what I consider to be one the most inspiring views that I’ve ever come across;
from this point you can see all that we have climbed and nothing higher ahead,
a feeling of exhilaration overcomes any exhaustion especially when we read that
this is the end of the wall which you can climb as the rest is unsafe. Having a
confirmed end to the walk made the last part more than worthwhile and stopped
us from saying the inevitable “Ok let’s just make it over the next peak and
then we’ll go back” which was much needed as we wouldn’t have stopped.
The walk back to the beginning felt as though it was
different part of the wall altogether, the views which were behind us the whole
time now faced us with a different light, we stopped a few more times on the
way back to appreciate the last views of the wall on this trip to China. When
we reached the beginning (or the end) we found that you can either take the
chairlift back down OR a single-rider wheeled toboggan down a huge metal
track....only a madman would choose the chairlift! We joined the queue and
awaited the ride but unfortunately for us we had a lady who feared speed in
front so only half way down was fun (until the crash) but still one hell of a
way to leave the great wall!
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