The Great Wall’ker

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.

Thanks a lot for the company! You were so much fun to be together with Lots of funny and cheeky comments that I like
Good luck with your promotion work in China!

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.

• Thin light weight ‘hotel slippers’, so I don’t have to wear the heavy boots in the evenings
• A poncho so I don’t have to pull out the tent every time a thunderstorm passes by
• The charger for my camera batteries so I don’t need to head for base camp to charge them
• Some shorts, so that I can wash my only trousers. I’ve already had a couple of meals without my shirt on, but don’t want to push my luck. I have seen Chinese doing the same as it is very hot now.

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
—–
I’ve just had a fantastic shower…

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

19th of June
—–
Or “Bomtur” as we say in Norway.

I took a bus from Huairou 8.30 that took me back to The Wall. After a meal, I followed a road to get to a small path that, according to my map, went parallel to The Wall on the Northern side.

It was very warm yesterday, and there was a solid climb uphill At half past one, I stopped for a rest at a small shop and had some cold Ice Tea. According to the owner of the shop, it is hottest between noon and two o’clock here, so now I know when to rest in the heat. In Gansu and Ningxia to the west, they hide from the sun between one and three o’clock. China is a large country and therefore covers several time zones although the whole country is on one time.

I went on and soon saw little parts of the Great Wall on the top of a mountain. In this area, there are steep enough mountains to take the job of the Great Wall.

I thought I found the path and started following it. In hindsight I should probably have walked a little further North to make sure there was not another path going eastwards. The path went close to the Great Wall. Soon it became smaller, but I went on as the map showed it should join up with a larger path after a few kilometres.

Soon though, I was following little more than an animal trail. There were planty of trees and bushes which the path went under and through. Then I heard the first thunder. From what I could see from under the trees it looked very local. First I sat down under the umbrella. When the lightning strikes got closer, it didn’t feel so safe to be holding a piece of metal in the air, so I got out the tent and draped it over me.

There was some hard rain, but after about an hour, the storm passed by. It stopped raining, although it continued to drip from the trees for a long time. I packed the tent and went on. It got a lot steeper, and by the time I had been walking for an hour I was completely drenched from all the water on the bushes. My trousers were clinging closely to my legs because of the water.

It felt like I was getting nowhere, and I was getting into an area with 5 to 10 metre high cliffs. The ground became very slippery because of the large stones which had wet moss and leaves covering them.

I decided reluctantly to turn around and head back. The sun was getting lower on the horizon and I started feeling cold. My boots were squishy squashy and every inch of clothing was soaked. There was a slight breeze when I got out of the thickest trees, making it even colder.

I quickly set up the tent, and got ready for the night. When I took off my smelly boots I saw water in them that I poured out. All the water from the bushes must have run along my legs into the boots…

It felt good to take off all my clothes, and snuggle in to my dry sleeping bag. I always have it in a waterproof pouch. No mobile coverage by the tent as expected, so this is yesterday’s report. I’m unsure what to do tomorrow, but may try to walk a little further North to see if there is a larger path. Just to the south, there was a pathed small road going eastwards for a couple of kilometres, and since the map was printed it may have been extended so I can use it. The problem is that I do not know, and the locals do not always know either. If I try three different options to follow The Wall closely the whole way, I’ll never get to Dandong so a part of me wants to follow larger roads to get more progression on this section where the Great Wall is fragmented by cliffs and mountains acting as part of The Wall.

14 kilometres today

Two days ago, I returned to Huairou ready to continue walking the Great Wall after having sorted out my visa in Beijing. In the evening however, a mighty thunderstorm started that lasted for more than 24 hours. I have experienced many thunderstorms, but never one that lasted as long and was so intense.

Walking the Great Wall in the Beijing municipality is hard work at the best of times. The area has many of the most dangerous sections of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall.

The hottest time of the year is a month away, but already the weather is very hot. This increases the amount of fluids I need every day which in turn increases the weight of my backpack.

Because of the extreme weather and terrain I will be moving through the next couple of months, I will have to be extra careful not to set out on any stretches that I think will be too dangerous.

It is hard to make the right decisions about which stretches to walk, and which to leave out. Sometimes, a stretch of the Great Wall may look fine on the map with topographical information. When I start walking it however, it may suddenly end at a steep ridge or cliff which is impossible to get around due to the “near impossibility to get through foliage”. Too many misses like this, and I will never reach my goal. Other times, stretches that look very hard may be easier in reality.

I go back to the Great Wall tomorrow and am excited to see how warm 35C feels here compared to the deserts in Gansu and Ningxia provinces. At least it will be easier to find shade here…

I forgot to write, but yesterday evening I had only two hundred grams of peanuts and a litre of Ice Tea left. That was it. I needed to get down from the mountain and hoped there would be a path as I had seen some stones from old settlements close to where I had camped.

This morning I started walking, and it was the same rush in the bush. Not paying too much attention to the direction I needed to go, I spent more time finding areas that were easier to get through, all the time looking both ways for any evidence of small animal tracks.

After a while I found a small path, and started following it. Sometimes it followed the bottom of a small trench in the ground with lots of dead leaves, so I had to be careful to find the place it left the trench. I hit my sticks on the ground in front of me often just to let the snakes know I was coming their way. Sometimes, the leaves would be 15-20 cm thick, and I didn’t fancy a snake climbing up the inside of my trousers…

Looking at the Google Earth map now, I am slightly disappointed at how flat the area I have been in the last couple of days looks. I am going to publish some pictures here to show you the descent I walked. It looks different on the pictures!

When I got down to a flatter area another slightly larger path appeared, crossing the one I had been following but heading for the steep edge of the mountain. The mountain’s edge had a high drop of more than a couple of hundred metres according to the topo map on my GPS, and it was steep!

The path went to the edge of the drop and I had some reservations when I saw it drop down in front of me. But from experience, these paths are usually well made and safe.

Following the path down was a fantastic experience! High mountain cliffs behind me and on both sides! The path was easy to walk - no danger. After a while, I was in the small town of Liubinbaoxiang. There’s a mouthful for those that don’t speak Chinese…

I waited for two hours to catch a bus that went to Huairou - my new base camp. The bus took two and a half hours to get there. Now I am going to take a couple of days off, sort out my visa and make more pictures and eat lots and lots of fattening food!

Looking back at the descent. The darker rectangle is where I came from.

Higher up, looking back again.

Looking down. You can see a little of the path in the lower left corner.

6 kilometres today

Got off to a good start and continued walking along the Great Wall. In this terrain with very thick foliage it means walking on top of the Great Wall. Sometimes the Great Wall was the ‘pile of rocks’ I have seen for a long time, and sometimes, it was still intact. The walls were neat rock structures of 3-4 metres. Walking on the top of the Great Wall is good now as it lets me see above most of the foliage, and if there is a wind, it cools me down a bit.

With this introduction, you might have guessed that I ended up spending a fair part of the day digging my way around in the bushes and trees. I came to a beautiful spot where there was a large watchtower. I could see the Great Wall continuing down a sharp ridge about a hundred metres away. However, I had to climb from the plateau I was on to the ridge, and it looked impossible. The drop was far deeper and steeper than I have seen before.

The steep part to the right I didn't climb down. The Great Wall following the ridge in the background

Instead, I carefully climbed down a steep hill at the foot of the watchtower. The plan was to traverse a couple of hundred metres and join up with The Wall again. No such luck. The hill was very steep and because of rain lately, I had to dig my feet into the ground to avoid falling. I used the walking sticks all the time to steady the descent. I managed to get quite close once, but the foliage was so thick that even if I had used all my weight against the branches, the next second the branches would have pushed me back again! Doing this made me fall once. Not a pleasant experience in such hilly terrain.

This captures how I felt after too long beating around in the bush without getting anywhere.

A little later, I heard thunder in the distance and thought I would have to continue down the slope to find a sensible place to camp for the night. There was no mobile coverage there and because of all the trees, I didn’t bother to try and send off a point for the map. Therefore I left the tent and walked around with the mobile stretched above me just to send off a message to tell my girlfriend that all was OK. By this time it was almost dark, very wet and misty. I am not scared about being alone, but this night  was a bit creepy…

6 kilometres today

It rained until the afternoon today. When it stopped I waited half an hour before packing the semi dry tent.

The Great Wall has been better preserved on the walk today. So have the watchtowers. In some places the core of The Wall had earth, making it much easier to walk on as it is flatter and has no lose and sliding rocks.

When I got down to the valley where there is a large water reservoir, I met a man in a field. I asked him if it was possible to climb the first part of a mountain safely, to get to the start of the Great Wall.

He turned around and pointed to the base of the mountain. At first I though he was joking as the place looked very steep. Then I saw a barely noticeable line through the thick foliage. I was lucky, because this man knew exactly what he was talking about.

I thanked him and walked over to the starting point. Started climbing the side of the mountain following the track. The foliage got thicker and I had to use my sticks to bend it away to check the ground was safe. A large part of the walk was only a short distance from the ever higher drop to my left.

After a while I thought this was like an adventure of Indiana Jones. Following a secret long forgotten path clinging on to the side of a mountain. Then the Indiana Jones factor was further heightened when my head was covered by a large thick spider web… We are not talking about a couple of threads here, but a large web. It felt like it was wrapped around my face and on the sides, being lodged behind my ears to make it stick. I remember hoping the spider was not walking around on my face as I tried to remove the web… I was happy when I finally got to the Great Wall.

From there, I climbed most of the remainder of the day. On one stretch there were steep drops on both sides, and The Wall was replaced by a couple of stretches where I needed to climb on all fours to get past.

Looking back towards the end of the day, I could see the reflection of the sun in the reservoir, and The Wall following the narrow ridge I had passed. A beautiful sight!

The walking has been slow today - less than 3 km/h. But I’m very happy with the progress considering the weather and terrain.

8 kilometres today

Finally I have reached Beijing Muni. I have set up my tent just a short distance from where the outer loop of western Hebei meets the inner loop I have been walking. It feels incredibly good to finally have reached this far after those first steps in the desert in Gansu more than a year ago.

This place is so different from the starting point of the Great Wall. Humid. Hills and mountains in every direction covered by mostly thick green vegetation! Close to the end of today’s walk, I came to a large area covered with white bushes with white flowers on them. They gave off a nice aroma  like a sweet perfume. There was no sweet girl here though. Instead, as soon as I stopped to put up the tent, I was greeted by a lot of blood thirsty mosquitoes.

I spent the first part of the day resting and eating. Washed my clothes and myself. It feels good to be clean again. Walking in warm weather through thick foliage quickly makes me feel dirty. I bought 5 litres of Ice Tea and started walking in the afternoon when it was a bit cooler.

Tomorrow looks like a pretty wild walk judging from what I can see from the tent camp, and the map. As long as it is not too hot, I should have enough drinking fluid to last most of the next two days.

11 kilometres today

8. june, 2010

Today I was asked: Are you going to Shanhaiguan or Dandong? I answered Dandong with a smile. The smile because this was the first time I met someone who knew that the Ming Dynasty Wall ends in Dandong.

Shanhaiguan is the traditional end point of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall walk from Jiayuguan. Over the last years there  a concensus has arisen amongst Great Wall scholars, that the Great Wall went on from Shanhaiguan to Dandong which lies right on the border of North Korea.

Little is known about the route from Shanhaiguan to Dandong. The few findings that have been done seem to line nicely up with ancient maps of the Great Wall in the province.

I want to thank Bryan and Kim of the Great Wall Forum for all the work they have put down in documenting the path of the Great Wall in Beijing municipality, Eastern Hebei and Liaoning. More so for being so generous in sharing their findings with me. Bryan has given me useful help and tips that will make my trip in Beijing safer. I hope to meet Kim in eastern Hebei to learn more about the route of the Great Wall in Liaoning province.

Last year a Chinese scientific report was published stating that the Great Wall is longer than believed. It stated that some new findings were uncovered in Liaoning province. I hope to get some specific information about these findings so that I can walk the new parts that have been found.

After walking for a couple of hours today, I entered an incredible landscape! Large rocks and cliffs. High mountians with several hundred metre verticle drops. I can understand why there is no need for a wall here.

Today I passed a three kilometre stretch of the Great Wall on top of a mountain. I had marked the starting point of a path on the GPS so that I could get to the Great Wall. After trying to find a way up 500 metres of steep terrain without success, I had to retreat down to a small road. There were several high verticle drops, and I couldn’t find a safe way up.

Shame - because there is a nice waterfall at the end of this short stretch of the Great Wall.

Had a rest at a Buddistic Temple at the warmest time of day and another towards the end of the day by a river called the White River. Long day today. I hope to take a good wash, of myself and the clothes I am wearing, tomorrow. Believe me - it is time for it…

34 kilometres today

No internet connection yesterday. This is written the 7th of June

The humidity has been pretty high today. Luckily it has not been very warm and there has been a nice wind blowing.

The day started along a road that followed the Great Wall. After a couple of hours, The Wall went straight up a ridge. It had high cliffs on both sides. At the top, I found myself battling through thick shrubs that were as high as myself. Beside The Wall, there was a sheep path. It was difficult to follow as the shrubs blocked my view. The sheep only need a 50 cm clearing to get through, while I had to contend with all the branches above. After a while I found the best way to follow the path was to feel my way with the walking sticks slong the ground.

For the first time, my left walking stick buckled under pressure. (It became about 5-10 cm shorter) I rely heavily on the sticks, so this wasn’t good news. There is a screw on the locking mechanism that I can tighten slightly. I hope that will help.

I got to a village about half past two, had a good meal and then visited an internet cafe.

The evening stretch was also in the mountains. Again there have been thick shrubs. I also started coughing a lot - particularly if I tried to pull a lot of air into my lungs. Have never had a problem with allergies, but my exposure to pollen has probably been pretty high today. Hope it goes away.

I don’t have a lot of drinking liquid left as the stretch in the mountains has taken longer than expected.

23 kilometres today

I found out this morning that there is no bus from Huairou to the place I left the Great Wall. Too many mountains in between. Instead I had to take three busses and a taxi to get here which took a fairly long time.

On the last bus I talked with a 20 year old girl who sat beside me. She had a Canadian English teacher once. We talked English and Chinese in every second sentence. She wanted to know my age, and I asked her to guess. She guessed 22. That made my day! To her defence, I am the second wayguoren she has ever spoken to.

To practice English, I asked her questions. Instead of the broing ‘What is your name’ and ‘Where do you come from’ I asked: Which qualities would you like to see in your future husband?

“He must be sunny” she answered. What a good answer

I got off the bus and walked the short distance back to the Great Wall. Had a bite to eat, and then walked eastwards until it was almost dark. The Wall runs parallel to a road tomorrow, and then does a couple of turns into the mountains.

6 kilometres today