The Great Wall’ker

I wish you a great celebration tonight, and all the best for the New Year! Thank you for following me along the Great Wall of China on this site.

There is a celebration here of sorts too. This is my last night in Shaanxi. Tomorrow I will hopefully cross the Yellow River for the second and last time on this walk. The Yellow River marks the border to Shanxi which is the fourth Province the Great Wall passes through. The two provinces really have the same letters in their Pinyin versions, but as a practical adaption, an extra ‘a’ has been added to Shaanxi to mark that it’s first character is pronounced with the third tone.

I am also celebrating because from what I hear January is usually a bit warmer than February. That’s worth a celebration in it’s own right!

A beautiful clear bright new moon rose from behind the Great Wall as I started my descent to the valley I am in now. After sunset, I walked in to a village where I was told they had simple accommodation, thanks to the local council in the town that helped track down the missing owner of the place. They also told me they will celebrate the Chinese New Year in February, but people don’t celebrate the calendar New Year here.

Now I’m snuggled up in my sleeping bag. Although there is heating in the room, it was close to freezing here. During the evening it got warmer though. I am going to celebrate New Year by eating a Snickers Bar, drinking an Akevit that John M kindly gave me last time we met and listening to ‘Happy New Year’ by ABBA on the mp3 player!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

12 Kilometres today

Here are the two Christmas effects I have had this Christmas. An icon that a Swedish priest called Leif gave me when I was in Hong Kong to renew my visa. Thanks very much Leif!! It has meant a lot to have this icon during the celebration.

 
 
 
 
 
In addition I have had fun using John’s Emergency Christmas Tree Kit which did wonders, and got me in to the Christmas spirit. Thanks John!

I wish all those in Norway and other places where they celebrate on the eve of the 24th a very Merry Christmas!!!

A large thanks to John in the UK that sent me a copy of his fantastic and original Emergency Christmas Tree Kit ™  Thanks a lot John! I will post a picture of the result tomorrow!

Click the image beneath to see the kit in all it’s glory:

Thanks John!!

Today has been a cold and windy day!! Went to the Great Wall north of Datong and had a good time there with some friends I have met here in Datong.

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Merry Christmas!!

The temperature where I continue walking will be minus 27 C tomorrow evening, and below minus 20 C the following couple of days, so I’m lying low in Datong.

I really wish I could take the time to add pictures as I go along, but that would be impossible. Anyway, I have added pictures to the following posts:

• Staying overnight with a 75 year old farmer
• Visiting the school for deaf in Shenmu
• The forgotten valley
• Happy send off from Chinese family
• Misty day

Will try and upload some videos soon, but the broadband line is terribly slow today. In the afternoon I will collect the visa.

A few days ago, I met two foreign girls at breakfast. It turned out that they came from Norway which was a great surprise! They are studying one year in New Zealand, and decided to tour India and China  in their summer holiday.

We went together to the Yungang Grottoes close to Datong and got to see the more than 50 000 sculptures carved into the walls and grottoes. It was a wonderful sight! (Really great!)

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Later in the evening we went to a very good  restaurant in Datong.  I told the girls that the meal was on me as this was basically going to serve as my Christmas dinner for 2009. We had a tasty meal with amongst other things Peking Duck and a fantastic dish with steamed broccoli with lots of garlic. Incredibly tasty!! We had plenty of wine too, and shared happy and not so happy experiences from New Zealand, China, India, along the Great Wall and other places on the globe

Thank you very much for the company, Ane and Mariell !! I’ll remember the evening for a long time     :-)   :-)     Speaking in Norwegian and listening to you talking in my dialect and the more exotic ‘Bergensk’ was such a treat! I wish you good luck in Taiyuan and the rest of your journey.  And good luck with making the ‘Julegrøt’ too!

I went to the Visa office in Datong today. I met the same lady who gave me an extension last time, and she agreed to give me another month. I pick up the passport on Monday.

I have spent time making the Chinese website better and it now has new pictures on the front page every day. The Great Wall Route map has been fixed so that it is updated every day when I am out walking.

I hate talking about the weather, and in fact every time I write the word, I should also write the word Great.   Why?    “Weather” has passed “Great” on the Google Webmasters statistics for this site. That means Google thinks my website has more to do with Weather than the GREAT Wall. That’s just great…

Anyway - If you look at the two graphs below, you can see what kind of W I can expect the next two weeks. Not good news. My limit for sleeping in the tent is minus 20 C (-4F) Half of the days the next two weeks go below this limit. I will just wait and see how it develops. Often the W forecast changes quite quickly, and hopefully it will change for the better.

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Many thanks to Nordialog for sponsoring this small but great mobile phone.

When walking the Great Wall, I do not carry the laptop. I carry the htc S740 which gives me all the functionality I need, apart from editing pictures.

The htc S740 is sturdy and has a steel frame around it. It is slightly larger than a regular phone and weighs 140 grams (4.94 oz). It has a regular small keyboard on top for dialling numbers, sending short messages and answering calls. But underneath it has a slide-out four-row keyboard. This keyboard is very easy to use and writing my daily reports on it goes quickly. The keyboard is illuminated from underneath so I can write the reports without the need of any light.

I have bought two additional batteries for the mobile phone and these three batteries last between seven and ten days depending heavily on how much I talk, and how cold the weather is. I turn it off while walking the Great Wall, and in the evenings I turn the screen brightness down to the lowest level. I bring an ultrashort USB cable so that I can charge the batteries when I get to a computer along The Wall.

In addition to updating the website, checking mail and the weather, making calls and sending messages, I have a Fluentz Chinese course on it. It has a large microSD memory card, and I plan to transfer music and books to it so I have something to listen to on the odd rest day along the Great Wall. I also have a small Excel sheet on it that I use to convert GPS positions from the format on my GPS to the format Google maps uses. (This is how the Great Wall Route can be updated)

When I am invited to stay overnight with Chinese people along the Great Wall I like to show them pictures of life in Norway. I might transfer these pictures to the mobile phone to save some weight. The phone has a 2.4 inch screen which is good for writing reports, but perhaps a little small for pictures. The plus however is that the 2.4 inch screen doesn’t use too much battery power. Another plus is that the screen is not touch sensitive as they often don’t work well in cold temperatures.

To update my website I usually write the report locally firest on the htc S740, then log on to my own website using an interface that was designed to be very lightweight in terms of the amount of data being sent to and from the server. This keeps my costs down. Then I update the blog entry and log off. I usually also check my main mail account, and then check the weather for the next couple of days. All these things help me stay sane while out walking, and can prepare me for bad weather.

For some reason, I cannot answer emails on the phone because of the sim card. But in one way this is a blessing as I can always text friends and family, and don’t want to spend lots of time writing long mails in the little tent.

I keep the mobile phone in a protective envelope. The sand in the desert is a killer, and I want to keep the S740 away from it. In sub zero degrees the envelope keeps the moisture from getting in to the itsy bitsy parts of the phone. I have lost the phone by accident to the ground a couple of times, and luckily it survived these falls.

So - to sum up - without this phone in the field, I would lose all contact with you readers, friends and family!

On the way back from the Visa visit in Hong Kong, I spent an evening with Kelly in Beijing. He and my brother studied Chinese together in Beijing, and the last half year we have gotten to know each other. He gave me an inspirational speech, and without going into any details, thanks a lot for the advice!

The last two weeks I have walked a respectable distance in pretty cold conditions. The trick now is to get all the practical stuff in Datong done as quickly as possible before returning to the Great Wall.

From the place I got to yesterday, I stood by the road for a while trying to flag down a car. After about half an hour a van, that had already passed me, turned around to pick me up. They were farmers and we had a nice talk while heading for Fugu on a bumpy road. Fugu lies by the Yellow River on the border to Shanxi which is the province I am about to enter.

I was hoping to catch a bus to Datong, but heard that there was no bus, so had to wait until today. When I got to the bus station at seven in the morning I was disappointed for two reasons. Firstly the bus wouldn’t start which delayed us for almost an hour. Secondly - it was a van, not a bus. That meant it would be a bumpy ride. But there were two other surprises that were almost as bad. The van had absolutely NO heating, so we were all freezing cold the entire six hours. And finally, it was full of Chinese men puffing their cigarettes. In some buses there is a ‘No Smoking’ sign, and I love to play the policeman enforcing this sign that many ignore, but this bus didn’t have the sticker. At times it seemed they were smoking to keep warm, because there were always at least two smokers at it. Sometimes there were 5-6 puffers at the same time. I felt like standing up and holding a presentation on smoking and it’s nasty side effects. Not to speak of passive smoking! Because of the lack of heating, nobody opened windows to get the smoke out because it was so cold… I decided at the end of the trip that I’ll return on the train.

Aaaaanyway - when we got to Datong, I went to the hotel where I had stored some items, and took a long hot bath, ate lots of good food and drank two and a half litres of Ice Tea.

Tomorrow I will work on more pictures for the website, back up the ones I have taken the last two weeks, wash all my dirty clothes and thoughts… And I will work on the Chinese website which I am really looking forward to.

When I started walking today I noticed both the blister from yesterday and a painful muscle on the front of my right lower leg. Yesterday I reminded myself to take an anti inflammatory tablet, but had such a good time with my new 75 year old friend that I forgot. I think both the blister and pain were caused because I tied my right shoe a little too hard for the 23 kilometres trek  yesterday.

I went on walking the Great Wall today but then lost track of it. I followed a valley and can only describe the condition I went into as ‘Great Wall Blindness’. Close to the end of the valley I thought I had the scent of the Great Wall, but then lost track. Then - right at the end of the valley, walking around a bend - I saw 4-5 watchtowers in a row a little to the North.

When I got to a largish road, I decided enough was enough and am heading back to Datong tomorrow. I just noticed my face is darker than usual. It has a layer of coal dust on it. Makes me look like a tough guy   

15 kilometres today

All water and food froze to ice overnight. I decided not to spend time warming it up and instead set off quite early (for me)

Had to make a lot of detours to follow the Great Wall. Some of them pretty steep and narrow. For the first time on the entire trip I slid and fell on some snow and ice. Luckily on the ‘right’ spot where it wasn’t too steep.

I saw some Chinese characters written into the Great Wall for the first time.

After 23 kilometres I was tired. I asked an elderly guy if there were any villages nearby where I could spend the night. He said no, but I could spend the night at his place which I was very happy about. So now we are curled up on his Kang with all lights off apart from the one from the TV. He is a cheerful man, and laughs every time I say something he can’t understand and vice versa.

I feel so lucky that he let me stay as I can now get the sleeping bag dried out and have a good nights sleep. No mobile phone coverage here, so will post this tomorrow.

This cat thought it was alone when it was about to eat the remains of our breakfast…

23 kilometres today

Quick report = cold in the tent.

Cloudy weather, but good visibility unlike when I set up the tent yesterday evening. In the first valley I found a small restaurant and ordered a big noodle dish, another for the road and two servings of delicious salt peanuts. Bought 2.5 litres of Ice Tea of which one litre was drunk with the meal. I also got out my sleeping bag after asking, and let it dry a little in the window. It is not wet, but damp.

Walking the Great Wall was fairly easy today which left more time to walking and less to figuring out where to go!

Just about 50 metres south of the Great Wall Route point for today, there is a fantastic pathway along the Great Wall that has a deep valley on each side. Walking it felt like something out of Lord of the Rings. There is a fairly large fortress just a couple of hundred metres to the north.

In the tent I can hear and feel explosions far below me. Walked past a massive coal mine today.

Several people have given notice that the websites are not always available. I hope the problem is resolved but ask the internet service provider if the problems persist.

20 kilometres today

A short report today. Cloudy and windy day with low visibility meaning it was at times hard to see the route of the Great wall. It got more and more cloudy as the day went on.

I was hoping to get to a road to look for a place to spend the night and eat some proper food. Instead another night in the tent and my two day old dinner, Oreos and perhaps some peanuts.

Woke up this morning with small drops of water on the entire sleeping bag. Probably ice on the inner tent that has dropped off and fallen on the sleeping bag due to heavy wind last night. I opened both the inner and outer tent doors to let the wind and cold in. That way the droplets turned to ice, and I could wipe them off the sleeping bag before packing it together.

I can hear the snow against the tent wall now, and am very happy that I called it a day as early as I did. I hope each and every one of you is warmer than me right now!

14 kilometres today

Although I am up on a hill close to a Great Wall watchtower I can both see and hear coal mines around me. As long as I stay away from the most poluted sites I guess this is good news as it means there are more people around. And people quite simply mean food and water.

After a few kilometres along a road I took off in the north easterly direction. Walking the Great Wall was hard as it was located in a large mining complex! They had dug steep walls so I had to walk through the complex before getting to undisturbed nature and Great Wall.

I started coughing after a while, and the cough became so strong that I started vomiting too. Threw up about half of my breakfast. Not very comfortable, but at least I got rid of the cough in the end.

Before I got to the next valley, I had a really hard time finding a safe way down. I followed a small valley, but it suddenly had a five metre drop. There were a few tracks on one side, but there was snow and ice there. I was not particularly tempted as I do not have studs for my boots and the track was narrow, clinging to a steep hillside.

So I went for the other side. Just as narrow on a steep hillside with a twenty metre drop, but no snow and ice. When I got half way up, I saw several ‘killer’ thorn bushes. Killer because they were about my height and the thorns are sharp and very long. In fact the whole bush is made entirely of thorns, so each and every sturdy branch ends up as a thorn. Anyway - that meant I had to walk even closer to the edge.

As I am doing this alone and during winter time, I will have to assess these situations more carefully. The problem is that walking back may not be a better solution as it takes time and energy and the alternate route may be just as risky.

Then I looked eastwards and saw what looked like a large Great Wall about five kilometres to the east! I asked a gang of about ten truck drivers having a break if it was the Great Wall but they said it wasn’t and meant I am on the right track. I am following a series of watchtowers, and see remains of Wall where there is no earth erosion. But The Wall is not very high. The one I (think) I saw in the distance was a lot grander. With the route I am following now I might link up with it tomorrow. I also wonder if it is a Ming Dynasty Great Wall or not.

Well - it is pretty cold on this hillside, so it’s time to send this report and then get all of my body inside the sleeping bag.

15 kilometres today

I’ve been asked by a few friends where they can send Christmas cards. A couple of letters sent to me previously have been lost. This is frustrating both for me and the sender. Therefore it is best to send them to my parents. Their address is Havnabakken 26, 0874 Oslo, Norway. Then they can pass them on to the next person from home that I meet up with.

Many thanks in advance! My Christmas cards will be on the blog this year. Anything else would be difficult I’m afraid.

The walk today was along what can only be called ‘Coal Alley’. Almost everywhere I looked it was black. The area from Shenmu to Datong is very rich in coal, I have been told. The traffic to transport it is almost constant both on road and rail. Tomorrow I head in a north easterly direction away from the coal alley. Looking forward to it. Will soon go out to send the GPS point. I just hope it will work, because I’m in a pretty steep valley and the device needs as much sky as possible.

I still have the cold. A cough and runny nose. It has lasted for a while, so hopefully it will improve soon.

19 kilometres today

I planned to walk on today, but after yesterday’s festivitas, I took some time for recouperation and drinking a lot of Ice Tea…

Later on I bought chocolate biscuits and sweets for the next leg, filled up the cell phone with more money, bought a memory card and did other small chores.

Today I had a great day. Some time ago, I met Mr Liu Yanfei, his wife and charming daughter of 4 on the train from Beijing to Datong. He invited me to see his school when I came to Shenmu.

Mr Liu and his friend picked me up in the morning and we drove to the school. It lies just a little west of Shenmu and has more than 150 students. The students are deaf and use sign language to communicate. They live at the school.

I got to see the dormitories, kitchen, gymnasium, classrooms and most important - to meet the students. They are between 6 and 16 years old. Seeing a foreigner raised a couple of eyebrows here and there. The students seemed very happy and were eating a good meal when I met them. The dormitories were nice and warm, and they even had a place to surf the internet. (I would have swapped any cold night in my tent with these students!)

I was told that music and dance are important activities at the school as the sudents can feel the music and rhythms and move to them. When meeting the students, I learnt how to say Ni hao, and my name in the sign language. This seemed to amuse the students.

After this, I met the teachers of the school. I told them about the project I am currently undertaking. Luckily I managed to speak mostly in Chinese, and Mr Liu’s friend translated the rest. I was asked about the differences in China now, compared to 1998 when I was last here.

They are easy to see, I answered, and thought first of the school we were sitting at. Also the infrastructure in form of roads, electricity, mobile phone coverage and internet has greatly improved.  Then I went on by taking my clothes off, to show that many of the goods we use in the west are now produced in China. I stopped before things became too indecent though.

Thank you very much Mr Liu for showing me the school for the deaf in Shenmu! and whilst I am thanking you, I would also like to say thank you   for the rest of the day

We had a great dinner at a posh hotel that used to be frequented by one of China’s previous Foremen. Then we went to the Blade Monastery - Erlangshan - that overlooks the town. This monastery is built on the knife-like cliff to the west of the town. The oldest parts are from the Ming Dynasty!

After that, we had another tasty meal before we ended the evening at a KTV / Kareoke bar. This was a first time experience for me, and really great fun. It was almost like having your own disco.

The only thing I have omitted from this report is the amount of wine and other drinks we had. I was introduced to the dice and drinking game men play at meals and parties and had the odds heavily against me. Also, it was popular to do the bottoms up routine, and since many toasts were directed towards me as the guest, I had the odds against me there too!