Today’s pièce de résistance was no less than The Great Wall of China! I left it for today because it’s just about the only attraction that opens on Mondays, but like with the Forbidden City, in order to avoid the crowds I wanted to visit in the afternoon, so for the morning we went hutong touring to Shichahai.
Right out of the metro and to the left, we ran straight into an Old Beijing style street full of souvenir stores and street food. Maybe it’s because at ten in the morning there were so few people there, but it was a much nicer walk than the other commercial streets we’ve seen so far.
Eventually we made it to the beautiful, tiny Silver Ingot Bridge, which bisects a peaceful lake all lined with waving willow trees.
We walked along the shore for a while, with the occasional Chinese tour group raucously enjoying their own visit behind us, until we took a turn inland to try and see Prince Gong’s Museum -which turned out to be closed! Monday, duh!
Still, the walk there wasn’t a complete waste, because we got to see the real hutong, purely residential streets where people still live in their traditional one-courtyard stone houses. Some facades were dilapidated, others seemed to have renovated windows fitted into their old gray brickwork, all had scooters and cars parked outside making the already narrow alleyways even narrower.
We had to retrace our steps back towards the lake, then walked along the banks full of lotus flowers to the Drum and Bell towers, the main monuments in this part of Beijing. These two towers, placed in the same vertical axis as the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and Zhengyangmen, are how the Chinese kept time, by playing either drums or bells at certain times of the day. The bell is so huge (the largest bronze bell in the world) that it is said people could hear it all around the city. I was mostly surprised the two towers look different, I had somehow imagined a matching set.
Anyway, by now it was noon, so it was time to hop on a Didi for the long drive north to Mutianyu!
Some logistics first: The Great Wall of China is not a single place. It spans thousands of kilometers in various states of restoration or disrepair, so you have to choose which section you want to visit, depending on how far out you want to travel, how much you’re ready to walk, and how well you tolerate crowds. Of the two most popular options, the first is Badaling, because it is reachable directly by high-speed train. However, this also makes it the most crowded, as all Chinese tourists head there en masse, so foreigners end up going to Mutianyu, which takes about an hour and a half by car (or more by tour bus) but is more manageable. This is the one I chose!
So, for starters, at noon there was no traffic so the ride took just an hour and ten minutes, dropping us off at the reception area shortly after one. The first thing we did was eat at a fast food joint (all the places there are chains, but, you know, eat when you can sleep when you can) then be on our merry way.
And… once again I got it right! On a Monday at 1PM, we walked right in, with not a single soul at the ticket check, just a smattering of people waiting for the shuttle bus, and our choice of berth for the cable car! I am so proud of myself right now.
(On the topic of crowds, the wall itself was another matter, because it was still well populated by all the people who were now making their way back down after their morning treks, but it was still very doable, especially compared to the pictures I’d seen online of people packed shoulder to shoulder.)
And then, as to the experience… watching the wall and the first towers come into view from the cable car was a feeling similar to seeing the pyramids or the Taj Mahal, the awe of being in the presence of a wonder of the world. You might think after planning trips for so long I would inevitably end up disappointed when finally seeing these mythical spots in reality, but it’s the opposite: I am overwhelmed with the realization that this place is real and I can now see it from every angle, not just as a picture in my mind.
After the shock of course comes the trekking! The cable car dropped us off at Tower 14, and from there we could go left/up or right/down. I chose to go left and up, hoping to get better views in exchange for what was sure to be a grueling uphill hike.
It wasn’t an easy experience, I can say that much. Even though it wasn’t technically very hot, the midday sun bore down on us and made walking harder (I carried my umbrella, which made maneuvering the steps even more of a challenge), not to mention the uneven steps, the irregular stones on the ground, and the crowds of people sometimes forming bottlenecks in the narrow watchtowers.
Come with comfortable shoes, come with water, come with sunscreen and an umbrella… but come, because it is so worth it! It is a unique view, and the further out you go, the more impressive views you will be rewarded with. We made it all together until Tower 16 -already quite a trek- but I say if you’re gonna do it, go big, so I split from the group and continued walking uphill unabated, with the goal of reaching Tower 20, the summit.
After a long, exhausting, long, and long walk along a very steep set of steps along a section of the wall that was under repairs, out of breath, with my legs shaking, sweaty, I finally, finally was able to make it back into a tower… which turned out to be Tower 19. So on we go!
Finally I did make it to Tower 20, and sure enough the views from all the way up there were sensational. Not for nothing, there was also a wonderful breeze. But then, from there, the ACTUAL top of the mountain range seemed just within reach…
So I got on with it, and I made it all the way to Tower 21. There are even more towers beyond, but here the path plateaus so I was happy to consider my trek finished. I don’t think I can ever walk again but seeing the entire mountains spread out before me was worth tomorrow’s inevitable soreness. I guess the wall, in and of itself, is not aesthetically beautiful, but seeing its undulating silhouette riding the ridges of the mountain range definitely is, especially on a beautiful day when the trees are lush and green.
Of course, all that goes up must eventually come down, so no sooner did I consider my trek done than I had to retrace all my steps back to Tower 14. I must say the entire way back felt faster and easier than even just the 18-20 section, partly because it’s downhill, partly because the initial crowds had now all but dissipated, which made walking easier and the scenery nicer.
So, after a return Didi trip that now did take like an hour and forty minutes, due to traffic, that’s it for today! What a magnificent experience, and what a stress-free way to experience it. I really couldn’t have asked for more!
This Is A Lake 