The Great Wall - China Part 4

There are some places in this world you can visit over and over, and still want to go back again. The Great Wall of China is one of those places for the Green Family. I think I have been there five times and Steve six, and given the choice we'd go again. It's just THAT cool.

That being said, we are very particular about where we go to see the Great Wall. Keep in mind that the wall is about 5,500 miles long (though not all connected), so there are many, many places one could go to visit. The first couple times we went, we didn't know any better and just went where *they* wanted to take us. *They* being our handlers. The handlers like to take you to the restored, polished part of the wall. I don't know if it's because they get kick-backs there, or if they are proud of the "upgrades," or if we are just easier to *handle* there. When we first went to this part in 1990, they had camels there to have your picture taken with, hand railings on the steep parts, and souvenir shops outside the ticket gates. Today, in addition to all that there's a dress-up photo op every 100 feet, cable cars to take you up and McDonald's outside the gates. It's pretty hard to imagine what the wall was like 2,000 years ago at this tourist trap.

The wall was built 2,000 years ago? This sounds like the perfect place to give you a small bite of history. Construction of the Wall began during the reign of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who took the throne in the 3rd century BC. It's intention was to keep out the people from the north, the Xiongnu. It's estimated that over 1,000,000 workers died while building the wall, and rumored that many are buried within the wall. Originally made of rammed earth, stones and wood, later dynasties continued the construction using bricks.

And just to clear the air...can it really been seen from the moon? I haven't tried it myself (it's on my bucket list though), but experts say that it is virtually impossible to see by the naked eye, the equivalent of seeing a human hair from two miles away. Additionally, no astronaut has ever claimed seeing it from orbit, much less from the moon. Believe what you want...

Back to our hike...after we had lived in China a while and no longer needed *handlers*, we discovered a much better place to see the wall. This portion is still to this day mostly unrestored, un-commercialized, and best of all, not overrun with tourists. After a three and a half hour drive, you are dropped off at a point on the wall and you hike on the wall about 12 km to the pickup point.

Now that we no longer live in China and can't go to the wall whenever we please, we were hoping for a bit of luck that day. We really wanted good weather: not only were we NOT in the mood to hike 12 km in the rain, but we really wanted the good views. We were hoping that the kids, after getting off a 10 hour flight the day before, would be able to make the hike. And the biggest roll of the dice was that it would be as spectacular and fun as we hyped it up to be. At the end of the day, we couldn't have been more delighted at the way it all turned out.

But as the day began we were a bit worried...

We were picked up from our hotel in a tiny Chinese mini-van. It won't work to picture a regular mini-van: I think this was made for people shorter than Jake. There was about 6 inches between the uncomfortable bench seat and the back of the next seat. None of us could sit facing forward - we had to turn sideways to be able to put our legs down. "No worry," said the driver. "We transfer to big tour bus." We made 3-4 more stops, picking up hikers until the little sardine can was full. Then we waited for the big bus to come. And we waited. Waited some more...

Finally we were told that the bus was broken and we would have to drive the 3 hours to the wall in the sardine can. Through my tears I couldn't help but smile: you can't get a more Chinese experience than this.

Once we arrived at the drop-off point, Jin Shan Ling, we pried ourselves from the can and stepped out with a bit of shock. There was a paved road, signs welcoming us and a couple tables of vendors to welcome our USD (I mean welcome us). Clearly the area was profiting from increased tourism since we were there in 1999. Still no cable car, camels or McDonalds though, so we were good.

Crisp, cold air greeted us as we began the hike, and we had clear blue skies for most of the day. The kids were pretty chilly starting out, until we started the serious up and down between the watch towers. The amazement of actually being on the wall was written all over the boys' faces. For Michael, it was a fulfillment of a dream to return to a place that his parent fondly told him about but he couldn't remember visiting. For Jacob, it was simply the fact that he was standing on GREAT WALL OF CHINA, built over 2000 years ago - something he had read about in Magic Tree House books but never dreamed he would get to do (unless he could get to Frog Creek, Pennsylvania).

After we had been hiking for about half an hour, we began to notice a couple of friendly faces sticking close by us. Then they began to assist the kids when going up the stairs. Eventually they were holding the kids' hands while they were going over treacherous places. Before we knew it, they were stuck to us like kittens to bowls of milk. Friendly locals, looking to practice their English? No. Helpful fellow tourists? No. We figured it out pretty quickly during our first break. The packs over their shoulders were not filled with lunches, water bottles or other necessities. They were bulging with post cards and cheaply printed t-shirts that said, "I climbed the Great Wall." And whenever we stopped, they turned their sights on the guy with the wallet. After helping the kids for an hour, how could Steve brush them off? Let's just say that we have a couple of really expensive t-shirts in our drawers.

Four hours later, we got to the

end of the hike (not the end of the wall, mind you) and found a very cool new addition: a zip line! Thankfully it was NOT 2,000 years old! To their unspeakable dismay boys weren't allowed to go alone, so we had to team up. It was the perfect end to one of the most memorable days we've ever spent as a family. In the picture to the right you can't see the smile on Jake's face but trust me, it was HUGE.

On the bus ride back into Beijing (and it should be noted that the "big" bus was working beautifully by then) the three boys slept. Even though I was completely exhausted, I couldn't stop reflecting on the day we had. The weather was perfect. The views were amazing. The kids were troopers and loved nearly every minute of it.

Yep. I'd go back again. It's just THAT cool.