The Great Wall

With the new open China and capitalism, the Great Wall has become tourist attraction numero uno! 

Several parts have been rebuilt and overflow with tourists. Some of the areas that are restored have really turned into a circus. One area was deemed too difficult of a hike up hill for tourists. In fact, the wall they visit is just a little segment recently built lower down the hill as a tourist attraction, and tourists never even see the real wall. These areas are chaotic tourist centers, with touts selling postcards, drinks, and trinkets.

We instead found out about an area of the wall that is not (yet) restored, but is still in good enough shape that you can walk it. Luckily, we saw that the hotel we were staying in had a bus that runs to this section, which is much easier that taking the city bus to the mini bus station and arranging your own travel. As is often the case, we were told that the bus no longer runs, but once we paired up with three other travelers at the hotel and had a group of five, then the bus does run after all.

This section was steep and rugged. Check out the photos. The wall follows the ridge line through a mountainous region. It just goes right up the side, over the top, and then up the next hill. Imagine standing on the top, with the warm breeze, looking out at the vast distances.

The wall is heavily worn with time, revealing its construction. The outer wall was set with a stone or brick facing, and inside was a layer of massive blocks. The size is amazing when you consider that these stones had to be drug up the mountains and placed in the walls by man and animal. Within the wall is a fill of rubble. Many areas have been repaired over the centuries, with brick sections, or different types of rock. The whole wall is maybe twenty feet wide at the base and ten feet wide at the top.

Periodically, the wall has a tower. These were stations for guards, and a few included staircases up and over the wall. As somebody said, the best fortified wall is only as good as the worst sentry, and indeed some of the invasions came from bribing just one sentry.

Today, these towers serve a different function. The locals have very little income, and see the tourists as a gravy train. Some locals have made improvements, such as stairs or ladders over difficult sections, and allow you to use them for a fee. Some just seem to barricade the wall and extort a fee. One offered free use of his ladder to climb up to the second story of a tower, but charged you to come back down! That set off quite a shouting match with one unsuspecting traveler, but we learned long ago to watch out for such traps. That is just part of the new wild-west China....