I made this blog (back in MAY) with every intention of updating it weekly once I arrived in Beijing. Well, obviously that didn’t happen. But here I am now, planning to update regularly, and, on my lovely friend Beth’s advice, I’m going to Tarantino this shit.
This past weekend I went to THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. Friends. I would like to hereby state that the BEST way to experience this is to sleep in a sketchy farmhouse near the wall, wake up at zero-dark-thirty to walk your butt to the wall, and then just stand there and bask in the sunrise. It was {insanely} cold, but absolutely, 150% worth it.
Saturday afternoon, Beth, Adam, and I met at the North Beijing Train Station, bought a train ticket for $1.00 and proceeded to head to the Great Wall at Badaling. Once we arrived, we started unsuccessfully wandering around looking for a farmhouse to sleep in. Emphasis on the wander. Double emphasis on the unsuccessfully. Eventually we showed a taxi driver the words “looking for a farmhouse near the Great Wall” in Chinese that our amazing friend Wang translated for us (please note that we would probably be extremely unsuccessful in some of our ventures without him). After this, our taxi driver knew exactly where to take us and we arrived pretty quickly. At first glance, let’s just say that it didn’t exactly look like somewhere you would want to sleep. A wall was clearly crumbling to the ground. There were approximately 5 million dogs. And no farm animals. Or crops. I’m still not sure it was a farm. I’m equally still not sure there wasn’t dog in my dumplings for dinner (I’m QUITE suspicious about how the patron kept pointing to food and saying that it was chicken or beef because I should be able to tell what I am eating based on what it looks like and tastes like. But I digress...) However, we had 2 beds with a bathroom and a TV AND HEATING! I think these may have been the 5-star accommodations of farmhouse sleeping. Dinner was eaten (suspicious!), games were played, and Chinese game shows were watched (which one day I’m going to watch sitting next to a Chinese person whilst forcing them to explain what the heck is going on). Eventually we went to sleep on the world’s tiniest pillows with an alarm set for zero-dark-thirty.
{Fast-forward past the alarm and getting ready with an over-enthusiastic Adam in the room at the crack of dawn because I am NOT a morning person and this was NOT a pleasant experience.}
We made it to the Great Wall around 7 and onto the wall in time to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful and a great start to our day on the wall. I think it was after the sunrise that we fully realized what the Great Wall is. Y’all. It is not a leisurely stroll where you bask in the fact that you are standing on something thousands of years old, smiling gleefully to yourself every few minutes because you’re on one of the wonders of the world. Did I experience moments where I was speechless about this? Yes, absolutely. I still can’t believe it. But there was also a LOT of climbing. So. Many. Stairs. Uneven stairs, at that. And also ridiculous inclines. There were many times we stopped to admire the view and just experience moments of being on The Great Wall of China (but luckily they served the dual purpose of also getting our breaths back). Please note the man on the left's STRUGGLE:
Really, it was one of the best experiences of my life. But don’t let the pictures online fool you- it is a HIKE! Luckily, at the end of our hike up, we didn’t have to hike back down. There was a roller coaster. That’s right. A roller coaster down the wall. Maybe it was a slow roller coaster that ended somewhere slightly sketchy, but it’s China, so what did we expect?
I truly cannot wait to go back (hopefully in the Spring!)
