Archive for the “Walking the Great Wall” CategoryThese articles are from my actual walk along the Great Wall. Here you can see an article about the walk in The Beijing News that was in print the 4th of July. There has been quite a lot of interest for the walk lately, and while I remain fairly close to Beijing, I hope to meet some more journalists to talk about the walk. As the interest for the walk seems to grow in China, I am considering contacting a Chinese cancer institute to ask if it would be possible for me to start raising money in China for them on the remainder of my walk. I have been walking during a very hot period lately. I have also been walking fairly good distances. The Great Wall has been too dangerous to follow all the way from Huairou to Gubeikou as many people on the Chinese blog have warned me. As a result of walking more along roads and paths, I have started using jogging shoes. The shoes I used were not very old, but all the same, as the soles have got grooves right under my feet this has resulted in several blisters. I therefore decided to go to Beijing for a whole day to get some R&R and get a new pair of jogging shoes that my sister and mother brought over when they came to visit earlier this year. That will hopefully mean I will be getting fewer blisters. Can’t wait to get back to Gubeikou and the Great Wall East of it in the Panlongshan area. Yes - Bryan - I believe it will be the first time I see the Northern Qi Great Wall. Can’t wait! Today I got to Gubeikou. The area around Gubeikou has a particularly famous stretch of the Great Wall that was of great strategical importance. It was first built during the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-557). About 800 years later (!) the Great Wall was extended and strengthened during the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The stretch is special because it has been preserved in it’s original state rather than rebuilt. It will be a great feeling to think that nobody has done building work to The Wall I am walking on since the people who were alive during the actual Ming Dynasty! I can’t wait and am bringing a tripod to try and snap some good pictures, and hopefully some pictures of myself on the Great Wall too. This is hard without having a tripod, or another person. Started walking quarter past six this morning determined to get as much done as possible before it got too hot. The forecast for Huairou was 43 degrees C, and I was dreading it. I am about 45 kilometres northeast of Huairou, so don’t know if it was as hot here. There was a breeze luckily. I walked a respectable distance before noon, and then sat down under some trees. There were plenty of blood sucking insects ready to have a go at me, so I put on the mosquito net again. (klegg, hestebrems og flekkflue) As the sun shifted, so did I to stay under the shade. After three, it felt cooler, so I went on. At five, I got to a place where they had a guesthouse and served food. I had only eaten an instant noodle serving earlier in the day, and was starving! Had a dinner, and will have another soon. 26 kilometres today Woke up a little after 5am. Then it started raining, so I had to wait an hour more before packing down the tent. There were clouds today which made it a little cooler than yesterday. I walked the last stretch of the day without my shirt, which was wonderful. There were suprisingly few mosquitos too - no doubt they will show up in force later. At lunchtime, I found a place where they had a Xiao Lu Dian - a small guesthouse. I explained that I only wanted to stay the warmest hours of the day, and then walk on. The lady understood and said I could take a shower and wash my clothes too. First I got a dinner next door, and then slept a little, then washed my shirt, took a (wonderful) shower and then rested some more. Then before leaving, I took another full dinner. Lying in a small patch of a field out of sight from people now. It feels a little cooler than yesterday. Perhaps I am a bit cooler because I walked without a shirt the last bit… 21 kilometres today Saturday 3rd of July I didn’t sleep at all last night. It was too hot. Started walking a little after 6 a.m. and walked until it got dark, with a break of several hours during the hottest part of the day Had a hard time finding a good spot to pitch the tent. Ended up under a tree in an orchard. A problem I am having with walking until dark is that I keep on generating a lot of heat when I want to sleep. It takes a long time to cool down. The last two nights, I have not bothered using my sleeping bag - no need at all. 23 kilometres today I started walking about 3 PM today, hoping the worst heat of the day would be over. It might have been too, but it was still incredibly hot. At about 7 PM I got a meal, but I ate less than half. Have set up the tent now and the sweat is running. There is a slight wind luckily. Completely exhausted! 11 kilometres today Got a tummy stummy bug, so have been lying low trying to get better. Next on the agenda is finishing off Beijing Municipiality which is harder than one might think. The Great Wall follows mountains more or less the whole way. The weather forecast now says some days will be warmer than 40C, and states: Sizzling sunshine and very hot; extreme heat can be dangerous for outdoor activities I went back to the steepest part of the ascent this morning to see if I could get past it. I could only find a spot where I would basically have to climb up a large rock where part of the climb would mean I would have to lean backwards/outwards relying 100% on my hand grips in order not to fall dooooown. While moving, that would mean only one arm holding me up the right way. I wasn’t willing to take the risk. There might be another way around, but I couldn’t spot it unfortunately. Instead, I returned to the valley, and walked it downwards and then eastwards to get to Huairou. 14 kilometres today I started after noon today, and took a dinner at Mutianyu before walking. After a very short time I met a happy bunch of young people from Guam. An island in the Pacific. They are in China to promote tourism to Guam but had taken the day off to see the Great Wall.
Later I met two women selling water I spoke to them for a while and when one of them understood what I was doing, she kindly gave me two bottles of freezing cold water - much appreciated. The other one said it was dangerous to sleep on the Great Wall because of animals. I asked her what animals she was referring to and she gesticulated a scary animal by coming towards me roaring and then strangling me. Looked like a cross between a bear and tiger. I’ll take my chances!! The Great Wall was fairly steep but no problem to walk. After a hot meal, I started an ascent to the spot I’m at now. Steep drop on both sides of a fairly narrow ridge. Walking up the ridge is OK so far apart from a couple of stretches where there are large rocks and cliffs. About 50 metres to the north along the ridge, I could see a potentially dangerous stretch. It looks like one has to cling on to a vertical rock to get past it. A very high cliff if one falls. At this time it was getting dark, so I walked down to find a small patch big enough to set up the tent. Will investigate the stretch in good light again tomorrow and make a decision. Lots of mosquitos here now. Nice to hear the sound of them when I’m behind a mosquito net.. 5 kilometres today
As you can see, I’m in for a scorching experience. I will try to walk early and late, and spend the noon hours in the shade. When it is this hot, I drink a lot of fluids. I have to take the heat and distance to the next place into consideration when planning my route along the Great Wall, so I can restock water. I will be doing some small additions to my equipment from now on too.
Tuesday 22nd of June —- Not a drop of rain fell last night, but I was still happy having spent it with my friendly hosts. We ate breakfast together, and I was off at around 7.30. Today was special in two ways. It was the first time I walked a stretch that resembles what almost all Chinese and foreigners associate with “The Great Wall”. To me, pictures like the one below are almost branding the product “The Great Wall of China”, but not that many people know that the Great Wall is very varied in design, height, purpose, building materials, level of deterioration etc.  Section of the Great Wall to the West of Zhengbeilou. I was also lucky enough to meet travellers Jenny from Sweden and Gary from the UK who are on an adventurous trip in Asia. They had made an attempt to reach the Great Wall at Zhengbeilou from the North, but ended up on a small path that led nowhere. They had spent time fighting through foliage in steep terrain. Reminds me of several experiences I have had lately. Together, we followed the track on my GPS, and got to Zhengbeilou and headed for Mutianyu. It is the first time since November last year that I have had company walking the Great Wall. Thanks Jenny and Gary for great company on The Wall!! Thanks also to the Great Wall Forum for making available the tracks in this area.  Great Wall stretch between Zhengbeilou and Mutianyu known as the Ox Horn. When we got to the Great Wall, there was a wild and beautiful stretch to the West which is steep and dangerous. I thought The Wall looked fantastic and mysterious in the mist that was slowly getting thicker. Looking at the pictures, some of that allure has been lost due to the mist. The Great Wall between Zhengbeilou and Mutianyu is BIG. It is 4-5 metres wide, and between 4 and 8 metres high depending on how the surrounding landscape hugs it. We headed Eastwards and had a fantastic walk along the best preserved Great Wall I have encountered this far. It was steep here and there, but I thought getting past some of the watchtowers was a bigger challenge. Sometimes there was a drop that would have been uncomfortable (but not dangerous) if it weren’t for the stones that were piled up. We took off our rucksacks and handed them to each other a couple of times. The joys of not walking alone hey?  Entering the rebuilt section. I was in for some strange experiences as we hit the touristy part. We were met by two ladies selling ice cold water. Where have they been hiding on my walk from Jiayuguan hey? What luxury. I didn’t buy any water though as I had three litres of Ice Tea in my rucksack. Then we started meeting tourists. One asked - how far is it to the end, and I was tempted to answer “About 4.000 kilometres mate”.
After a while, the original Great Wall was replaced by a reconstructed part that was easier to walk, but perhaps not as exciting as the original. If all the bushes had been removed on the original section, I think it could have been more spectacular. A little notice about the weather in the Beijing and Hebei areas. From June to August thunderstorms often and quickly develop in the area. As you can see from these pictures the Great Wall mostly follows the highest ridges and is therefore the exact place you don’t want to be during a thunderstorm. Neither are the watchtowers. Sometimes, it can be hard to find a place to get down from the Great Wall and seek shelter. Last year, a newly wed Chinese couple were reportedly struck and killed by lightning in this area.  These girls formed the backstage for an artist launching his first album. Getting closer to Mutianyu we heard someone speaking over a loadspeaker. We saw lots of young girls holding flags and small signs. It turned out that their teenage idol was launching his first album on the Great Wall, and the press conference was going on. The girls acted as decoration on the Great Wall behind the singer. I borrowed a sign and started waving it, but was soon told that the signs shouldn’t be waved but just held up. Boring. Both my camera batteries were very close to empty at this stage, so I thought I might as well head for Huairou to get them charged. The tickets for the gondola going down from Mutianrou are designed so that the ticket inspectors first pull off the “Going up” part, and then the “Going down”. I wanted a return ticket from the top. The boss understood my dilemma and wrote on the back of the ticket, that I wanted the opposite deal as I want to keep walking from the place I left off. As we got off the gondola and started heading for the road, we were ‘attacked’ by people wanting to sell us Great Wall merchandise. And of course one of the popular items was the T-shirt saying: “I climbed the Great Wall”. I was tempted to get one, but hey - I haven’t done it yet, so I will save it for later. 14 kilometres today Monday the 21st of June There is a very inquisitive guy sitting less than a metre from me on a bed now. He is speaking loudly asking questions that I don’t understand. Doesn’t help much that he is slightly drunk. I have explained I can speak a little, but my understanding is limited. He still keeps asking though… Back to the shower… I ended up very close to the Great Wall today, and was set to camp right by it. As I climbed a small road I passed a lively and fun group of people, we got talking. It was getting dark, but there were street lights. I explained what I was doing, and they all shook their heads, and started telling me something that seemed important which I couldn’t understand. I phoned a Chinese friend, and asked her to translate what they were saying. It turned out that there will probably be very very heavy rain tonight and this area is known for flash floods and landslides. They said it would be safer to stay indoors. I remember passing a sign in Chinese and English, but I didn’t quite understand the meaning at the time. The English translation said: “Caution! Area Prone to Debris Flow Hazards”. I was invited to spend the night at one of the lively women in the gang for a fair price. I was grateful both for the warning and offer. When I got to their home, I was shown into a separate room for me, and then her husband showed me their shower!!! This is the first time I have used a shower in a private home for a very very long time. There was no lack of hot water as they had a device on the roof harnessing sun rays to warm up water. It feels good to be clean again! Some snippets from the day: Just after I woke up this morning, a farmer started working in the field nearby. A very nice and quiet man. He gave me some walnuts for the road which tasted good. I gave him an Ice Tea, but he shook his head and said he already had boiling water in a flask. I tried again, but there was no way he was accepting the gift. Just after I left a town called Se Hai today, there was a small thunderstorm. I hid under a bridge and was accompanied by a farmer for the duration of the storm. In the afternoon I met a young boy who spoke really good English and wasn’t afraid to use it. He was thirteen years old. I taught him the difference in pronounciation between thirteen and thirty. I saw some bee keepers while I was resting. I slipped my mosquito net over my hat and joined them, and took some bee pictures of the slices (combs) that make up the bee hive. After Se Hai, I could have gone north to join up with The Wall earlier than where I am now, but there were dark clouds close by and I didn’t want to risk being on The Wall if there was another storm. Thanks to Cherry for translating the warning which the people I met this evening gave me. 19 kilometres today Sunday the 20th of June After yesterday’s drench, I decided to dry things this morning. The sun was out luckily. My boots were soaking wet on the inside.. The inside soles are of the spongy type, and I squeezed as much water out of them as I could, before putting them in the sun. My trousers and shirt dried quickly. In my left pocket though, I had all my money and it looked little more than a pile of wet pulp. Carefully I pulled one and one bill apart and dried them. Most things were OK. My mobile phone and sleeping bag in waterproof satchels. The paper map, a few letters of recommendation that I carry and my passport likewise. The GPS and satellite transmitter are waterproof. The camera was wet and had not been protected. It was OK though, and I put it in the shade. The boots took longest to dry, but I found it worthwhile to dry them as much as possible until it started getting ‘cooler’ in the afternoon. When I reached a small shop and bought liquids to drink, the woman behind the counter told me it had been 37C in the shade at the warmest. Less than two months ago, I remember it snowing in Zhangjiakou. The spring certainly doesn’t last for long here. I kept on walking with the Great Wall to the north. Later my girlfriend called and then just after, my brother. It was good to hear familiar voices again. Small talks like this mean a lot, now that I have been away from Norway for so long. Thanks to Skype they are very cheap too. The sun sets a little before eight p.m. so I pushed on wanting to get the most out of the cooler evening. When I couldn’t differentiate the colours in front of me longer, it was time to find a place to sleep. I went off the road and found a very small open patch in a field of corn on the cob. The patch was just large enough to set up the tent without damaging the crop. 18 kilometres today |
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