The Great Wall’ker

Honestly - I don’t remember that much from this day. I took only 7 pictures and was mostly focused on getting an early start, and doing some good walking. It was pretty cold, and the wind was fairly strong.

Toward the end of the day, I got to a river I had seen on the map. Many rivers in all the previous provinces have been tiny and easy to get over although they have looked big on the map. In Liaoning however, they are bigger. I spent a little less then an hour walking northwards up the river trying to find a spot to cross it but was supposed to be heading east. Then the river branched off, and I took off my shoes and waded over a spot that was shallow with a strong current. Walking sticks are great to use when crossing rivers. A little further upstream there was a make-shift bridge to get me over the main branch of the river.

I found a small town and got talking to an elderly lady who didn’t seem surprised to see a foreigner there. That was a pleasant change as over the last days, people have been staring and shouting to each other that I was there. She told me there was an hotel (!) in the town. It turned out the hotel was a Spa-like deal with a swimming pool and massages etc. I liked noticing how the Chinese in the hotel all walked around in their pyjamas, and all the men smoked just as much as they do otherwise. So much for health.

The high pyjamas factor kind of reminded me of a James Bond film with Sean Connery. Can’t remember which one it was. I double checked my door was locked that evening before going to sleep to be on the safe side.

31 kilometres today

This was an exciting day. As I have mentioned before my route, walking the Great Wall of China in Liaoning is based on an old map. Kim of the Great Wall Forum has been kind enough to help me make small adjustments on the route so that it follows potential findings on the Great Wall in the area. These findings have mainly been done using Google Earth.

Today I walked along one of these and am very happy to have seen some genuine Great Wall in Liaoning. I asked some farmers, less than a kilometre from the site, if there was any Great Wall in the area, and after having discussed it for a little while they said I needed to go to Shanhaiguan to find any Great Wall. Then I headed to a ridge above the fields they were working in.  At first I just found some large rocks that formed a line with bushes in between them.

Walking on, I found that the rocks formed two solid lines in the earth between 4 and 6 feet apart. There were even some larger foundation stones visible at some spots. Walking on, I found traces of Great Wall where the rocks were still lying on top of each other about 3-5 rocks high. This was very exciting, and I have spoken to Kim about it already. See some pictures below.

As I am on a tight time ‘bugdet’ now, I can’t write more about the findings now, but will do so later when I have more time. Altogether I followed the traces of The Wall for about a kilometre. Without being really close and knowing what to look for, they are hard to spot. There was a path going along The Wall for a lot of the section. The Wall seemed to have the same characteristics of the Great Wall west of Zhangjiakou.

A big thanks to the Great Wall Forum and Kim for sharing Google Earth findings with me. It was really really fun to find and document this little stretch of Great Wall in Liaoning!

28 kilometres today

Stones lining up about 4-5 feet from each other

Great Wall in Liaoning Province

I was so tired after todays’s walk that I just pitched the tent, sent off the GPS signal, wrote a few notes in the diary and then fell asleep.

The first 10 km were in pretty hilly terrain. I walked them with one of the photographers I met the day before. With the GPS points I had pre-selected, we walked back into Hebei and then to Liaoning where the photographer headed back to his base.

As we descended into Liaoning I was surprised at how flat it was. Soft rolling hills going into the distant north and east. I couldn’t help imagining that I was a little Hobbit getting close to Hobbitun after having ’seen the world’.

At the first little shop in Liaoning I bought 5,000 fire crackers and blew them up a little later to celebrate that I was in the last Province and to ward off any evil spirits that would interfere with the walk

The firecrackers cost RMB 15 which is a about $2.5. If you want to celebrate in style, this is the place to do it.

37 kilometers today

They probably both need an explanation. The Phantom (Fantomet in Norwegian) is a cartoon that I have been reading for more than thirty years. The Phantom is a strong masked hero that is tough against the tough. He has dedicated his life to fight against unjust, and has a particular distaste towards pirates. (Not software, but the Jack Sparrow type)

He was my hero when I was young, and he still is off course. That’s because I’m still young.

Knott is a Norwegian candy with small pellet sized yummy sweets. They come in white, grey and brown colour tastes. Norwegians are forever discussing which is their favourite. I like the grey best as they disolve quicker on the tongue.

Getting to the point. My sister and mother brought Knott with them when they visited Beijing earlier this year. And my girlfriend brought The Phantom when I met her in Hong Kong while I was getting a new Visa.

This evening I’m having a Norwegian evening with the cartoon and Knott, and I’m enjoying it a lot!! Many thanks to Tone, mum and Trude for bringing them over!

If you ever want to do some Great Wall walking/climbing, I can recommend this area. It is pretty wild, and the Great Wall often ends up at a high impassable cliff. I have crossed it several times today, but walking the actual Great Wall has been out of the question. The weather has been very nice. Blue skies, a cool wind, and a warm sun. It quickly gets cold in the evening.

I ended up at a small guesthouse tonight where two photographers were also staying. They have been coming to this spot once or twice a year the last ten years. They make their living from the pictures which are fantastic. They use the traditional large format cameras which are very heavy. None of this digital stuff! One of them told me he only snaps about sixty frames a year.

33 kilometers today

Got up early today and started walking at 7.30. This time I hit the right track and soon I was climbing higher and higher. Nice fresh air and a blue sky due to high winds and rain from the north yesterday.

When I was here the last time, there were a lot of Chinese people celebrating the October festival, but now it was completely empty.

The leaves have turned into beautiful reds and yellows. The path I followed seemed to disappear now and again, but then reappeared. At one shady spot I saw a leaf covered in ice.

By the end of the ascent I was about 1200 metres above sea level. Then came the almost one kilometer descent. I walked a very nice dirt track and got lost once, as I was only following a general direction. Ended up in a tight spot where I had to climb down to get to a small river.

Then I followed the riverside. At one nice place I took off my shoes and bathed my feet in the very cold water. I had turned on the phone to check for messages and a few seconds later, my mother called. Thanks for the chat !

Got a blister on my right heel - probably because of the height difference more than the distance. This evening I was lucky to find a simple but great guesthouse. Have taken a shower and wanted to puncture the blister. It is placed in the worst possible place and I couldn’t really see where it was, so I’ll just have to see how it goes tomorrow.

Have brought the warm sleeping bag, so won’t be freezing for at least a month, I hope.

Today’s position should be right on the Great Wall. This valley seems to be very heavily defended with several free-standing watchtowers and a double wall. In both directions, The Wall goes straight up steep and high mountains that take over the role of the Great Wall of China.

29 kilometers today

On Wednesday I got a chance to meet up with Kim and Andreas from the Great Wall Forum. Andreas and I have joined up on the Great Wall twice before so it was a lot of fun to see him again. There is never a slow moment around him, and we had a lot of fun, and someone had a lot of beer. I’m not mentioning names though… Kim is Danish and lives and works a little south of Qinhuangdao. He has a very good knowledge of the Great Wall particularly in this area, and has been working a lot on the Liaoning Great Wall.

It would have been a perfect evening if Bryan also could have been there. Bryan is the humble founder of the Great Wall Forum. He was in the area a few days earlier, but unfortunately had to head back to Beijing because of becoming really sick. I hope we will all meet up again in the future some time!

Andreas, Robert and Kim

It was really good to meet up with Andreas and Kim. We had a good meal, and then I pulled out my computer and looked at, and discussed the route of the Great Wall in Liaoning. When I get a chance, I will update the planned route to go as close as possible to what we know about where the Great Wall went here. In this last section, there are few findings of the Great Wall. The route is based on some findings here and there - particularly watchtowers. It is also based on old but accurate maps of the region.

The Great Wall in Liaoning was probably a slender construction like the one by Zhangjiakou. On the top it may have only been a few feet wide. In many places of the Great Wall along this section, there has been agricultural activity for several hundred years. This is one of the reasons why the Great Wall here is difficult to get a grasp of. I promised Kim and Andreas to keep my eyes and ears open, take pictures, ask people if they had any knowledge of the Great Wall in Liaoning and report back.

Yesterday I was interviewed by a TV crew for a Chinese program and a local Chinese newspaper. With the TV crew we drove to the First pass under heaven to have an authentic setting for the interview. My brother and I, and two friends: Birgitte and Øystein were here in 1998. It was special to be back there!

Today I am going to send pictures to the news crews, and answer two Norwegian interviews. I will also update the GPS with the route for the next section, make more pictures so that everything is ready for a new stretch along the Great Wall, and entering Liaoning - the last Province of my walk.

Next time I return to the Great Wall I will pass in to Liaoning - the last province on my walk along the entire Ming Dynasty Great Wall.

To put things into perspective, have a look at the Great Wall Route.

Each blue dot indicates where I ended a day of walking along the Great Wall of China.

Sorry for not writing that much lately. As I wrote a few days ago, I was feeling extra tired.

On Friday (1st) I woke up with a sore throat and feeling a bit groggy as we say in Norwegian, but pushed on. This was the Chinese National Day. I saw some fireworks and most of the buses heading into the countryside were packed full, whilst the ones going to towns were almost empty. Apart from the fireworks, there wasn’t that much celebration going on. They had their big 60th year celebration last year.

After eating food at a nice place, I started the ascent to the Xiangshan mountains. (shan = mountain in Chinese) I had the Great Wall to the south of me, but often I could not see it as it was a pretty misty day. I walked as far as I could on a small road and then got ambushed by locals wanting to sell me food, special drinks, donkey rides, fireworks and incense. I thanked no to everything including the donkey ride.

I had made a few marks on my GPS for a possible route through the mountains, and wanted to get as far as possible before it got dark. The forecast said rain all night and then into the next day, so I wanted a good starting point to get through the mountains.

The area was very steep and had beautiful sheer cliffs and waterfalls. After a while I sat down, talking to some of the locals hiring donkey rides. I got out the map, pointed and asking them “hui zou ma?” - can I walk/ get through and they nodded. The map showed I had to enter a steep valley. All I saw were some stairs made for tourists leading up the side of a waterfall, so I started climbing on the back side to find the valley. By the time I got high up, I could look down at the valley which was indeed where the touristy stairs led to. The cliffs were so steep however, that on my map it looked like I was in the valley far beneath me.

It was getting dark and cold by this time, and I set up my tent expecting rain during the night. Although the tent was set up in good shelter, the wind kept hammering it like mad. I went out later to fasten all the corners to keep it down. During the night I ran a very high temperature and slept little.

Saturday (2nd) woke up to hard rain a very sore throat and a runny nose. Great… Stayed in the tent all day long. Went out once to take a leak.

Today - froze during most of the night. The sleeping bag was very humid due to the rain and misty conditions. Nose running. The inner tent had loosened from the outer tent at one corner due to the hard wind. I was getting very low on food although I had plenty to drink. It was cold!! Looking at the route, I saw I had to pass about 1200 meters above sea level to get to the other side. It was still raining, although not so heavy. I wanted to get through, but considering that quite a few things were going against me, I decided to head back to Qinhuangdao and warm up, eat and get better. I had only two small sausages left, a tent that was damaged, a pretty bad cold. If I had continued, I could have hit rain and hard wind at 1200 meters above sea level without any food in my stomach. Not a particularly good combination.

On my way down, I talked to the “Donkey boys”, and they were happy to see me. I told them I would be back in a few days time.

A big thanks to a very friendly bus driver and his two friends who were leading some Chinese tourists to the site I had been to, for driving a tired, sick and cold ‘way guo ren’ back to Qinhuangdao. Thanks!!!

A big thanks to my brother Jon also for ’switching’ the month on the Pictures from China website. Takker Jon!!!

There has been rain the last 14 hours and a lot of thunder. I cannot send or receive text messages. Will stay here another night and try to get through the mountains tomorrow.

I’m sitting by the Great Wall now, looking to the South from a fairly high vantage point, I can see the tops of a lot of smaller hills in the distance.

The corn on the cob is ready to be harvested and the long leaves on the plants are dry. They make a pretty loud noise as the wind blows through them. It’s a pleasant soothing noise though.

Today has been a long day, and I am tired. As soon as the sun hides behind a higher hill to the West I will set up the tent. Autumn is definitely here. It gets pleasantly cool at night, but during the day the sun still does a good job of warming up this place.

I am not quite sure how to get past the mountains to the North and East. Following the Great Wall is out of the question as the mountains are very high and steep. Will get close to them tomorrow and then make a decision.

25 kilometers today

A few firsts today. For the first time ever I saw red peppers growing in a field. Naa har jeg vaert der pepper’n gror! Norwegian expression. A week ago, I was offered lots of chestnuts while walking. Today I saw farmers digging their peanut harvest out of the ground. I have never eaten freshly dug out of the ground peanuts, and they were crunchy and tasty! Another first today was watching farmers carefully harvesting cotton.

25 kilometers today, 16 kilometers yesterday

Got back to the Great Wall area at about noon, and after a hot meal started walking. It was very steep and there was dense foliage where I first tried to get on The Wall. I started fighting my way through the foliage and thorns. Suddenly a thorn went deeply into the front of my thigh. I tried to dislodge it carefully but part of it broke off, and stayed put in my thigh. It hurt quite a bit, which it also did when I tried to get it out with my fingers, without luck. The thorn was on a branch that had been cut off and was lying on the ground. That’s probably why it got past the guard given by my arms and two walking sticks.

I walked around a small top to try to join up with The Wall at the back. As I did this, I saw that only a hundred metres further on it went down a steep valley, and on the other side was a cliff I couldn’t climb. The alternative was more thorn-walking which I had had enough of. Headed for the valley to the South and bought some needles and a lighter.

I am at a basic guest house now, and have dug into my thigh with a couple of needles. It’s surprising how strong and elastic skin can be… After quite a lot of digging, I think the whole thorn is out, but will check again in a couple of days.

I’m sitting in a very nice waiting room in Qinhuangdao waiting for the bus to take me back to the Great Wall.

As you might have noticed, there has not been that much activity on this site lately and the map has not been updated while I have been out walking. This is because the main keyboard on my mobile phone has gone 250 as they say in China - meaning it is faulty. There has also been a technical problem on the web site. That problem is resolved, so from now on you should be able to follow my progress on the Great Wall Route page day by day.

The last day in Zunhua, I went to a China Mobile shop looking at mobiles with a full keyboard. They cost quite a lot of money. I got talking to one of the salespersons there and told her a bit about the walk. The day after I returned, having decided to get the phone. I was very surprised and grateful when the woman showed me a phone much superior
to the one I was planning to buy, and gave it to me!! Her husband had used the phone a short while but didn’t need it any longer. I was so surprised and offered to pay for it, but she would hear nothing of it.

So - a very big thankyou to Lily in one of the many China Mobile shops in Zunhua! You are a very generous person

This message is written on the Nokia E71 which her husband donated.

The last few days have been pretty wet. A cold wind also swept in from the North making them colder.

The definite highlight of the past days was going back to Panjiakou, which my brother, two friends and I visited in 1998. Panjiakou is a very special place as the Great Wall is submerged by water there as a result of the large reservoir. The whole of the old village called Panjiakou lies in ruins at the bottom of the lake, whilst the people that decided to stay on now live on the new shore by the reservoir.

Although this is all exciting, the most exciting part for me was to see if our friend from our visit in 1998 was still living there.

I hitched a boat ride from the Western shore of the lake, and before reaching my destination it was easy to see there had been a tremendous amount of development in the area. Large parts of the lake are covered with square frames and fish nets for cultivating fish (fiskeoppdrett). There were a lot of new buildings on the shores.

When I was dropped off, I headed for the house of our friend from 12 years ago. Just as I was about to shout if there were any people there, she stepped out. I recognized her straight away.  After a second, she took my hand, and led me to one of those picture frames with old pictures. And there was a picture of my brother, two friends and I together with her  family.

I never thought I would find a picture of us hanging in a Chinese home like that. It was quite moving. We sat down to a good ‘what has happened the last 12 years talk’. She had visitors, and was pretty busy preparing a meal for them.

Just about when my Chinese ran out, brother Jon called from Scotland, and had a good chat with her. I’m so happy it worked out as he had a busy schedule. A very happy moment and evening!

I was invited to join her visitors for the evening meal which had lots of juicy dishes. They were a lively bunch, and with a small traveller’s dictionary we had plenty to talk about.

As the main keyboard on the phone is out of order, I’m writing this on the numeric keyboard which is pretty time consuming. Will try to get a new, not too expensive, phone soon because otherwise this will take too long.

13, 18, 5, 7 and 18 kilometres the last days