19th October – Beijing, China
A 5:30 alarm today for a special day trip. The metro was surprisingly busy for 6:30 on a Saturday morning, with almost rush hour levels of people on the inner circle. The sun was out but the air very chilly. We were at Dongzhimen bus station for 7:30 and managed to track down our bus to Jinshanling without any trouble. To our slight panic, it was almost full, half an hour before departure and the driver wouldn’t accept AliPay, WeChat, or credit cards. We didn’t have cash as supposedly this is a cashless country now – definitely something we’ll rectify! I was apprehensive that we wouldn’t get on but a couple of people offered us cash that we could return to them on by scanning their WeChat. Luckily and surprisingly, it worked. Phew! We were off, with all the snacks we might need!
The 150km journey took longer than expected as traffic was heavy getting out of the city. We passed elevated, futuristic looking train lines, with occasional high-level stations. These were completely separate from all other rail or road infrastructure. After 90 minutes or so, the terrain became verdant and very hilly, borderline mountainous. It was spectacular in the low sunlight against the deep blue skies. Trees were beginning to turn, with yellows, oranges and reds joining the show of bright colour. Eventually, we saw it. Impossibly clinging to the top of a ridge of vertiginous peaks, the Great Wall (well, one section of the many walls). Little did we realise that upon this incredible section was exactly where we’d be standing a few hours later!
From this point, the bus still took another 45 minutes to navigate the tourist area checks and queues. The route through tunnels and approach from behind was disorienting and we didn’t really know which section we were heading to. All scenic, and many non-scenic areas, are ticketed in China, so we had to buy a ticket on entry as expected. The area around the designated scenic parks are also often tightly controlled, as is the case here.
Up we wandered, eventually entering the Jinshanling Great Wall at a relatively low watch tower. As we climbed up the first slope, the view opened up to show the wall snaking for tens of kilometres in either direction. Even distant mountain ridges had the tell-tale watchtowers of its presence. It was an astonishing, genuinely breath-taking view. It’s one of those places that everyone has seen photos of. Those sights are often not quite as exciting in person but this completely blew me away. The scale and beauty were awesome. The scene would’ve been stunning even without the wall, but having this hypnotic line twisting and turning as far as the eye could see focused attention on the raw beauty and humanity’s connection to it.
The Jinshanling Great Wall is one of the easier to reach from Beijing but is supposedly far less touristed than those sections nearer the capital. It was also now late in the season, although it was a sunny weekend and also the last on which many bus routes ran until the spring. We didn’t quite anticipate how busy it would get when an hour or so in when we ran across a few uncomfortable bottlenecks. There is a semi-accessible way up by cable car part way along which gives access to many who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access this national treasure. In itself this is fantastic – elderly Chinese people get to see their country’s jewels. However, the sections they then have to walk are steep and unfortunately many are not able or unprepared, this despite being generally a lot fitter and more active than western people of the same demographic. There is often no way to pass easily but people try, conscious of their return transport, and it makes things worse. We were stuck without moving for over half an hour at one point and eventually joined those who could in climbing up a tower and in through a window (under official encouragement, not random cultural desecration!). Someone in front of us nearly fell – we weren’t high but it would’ve easily been possible to break something on landing – provoking squeals from those below. After the cable car section, things mercifully got better, and we were able to on the whole go at our own pace.
The next section was unrestored, which felt like a privilege to walk upon. What wasn’t so nice were the increasingly steep slopes, which must’ve often been at a 50-60 degree angle! Up and down we went, with the views somehow even better and giving plenty of excuses to stop and admire. We dared not stop for too long though as we were relentlessly photographed, usually ‘stealthily’ but a few times posing with people or their kids! 5km after we’d started, we reached the end of the walkable section. Looking back, the whole section we’d traversed was visible. It looked impossibly far but still puny compared to what lay snaking on beyond and over the horizon. This was one of those experiences that we’ll forever remember.
After managing to awkwardly borrow some more cash, we were able to get the coach back. This took even longer than going out. The queues not long after the park were enormous, which turned out to be for a police check. Everyone had to get off of the bus to have their IDs or passports scanned. The driver continued slowly onwards, with one highlight for me seeing an ‘auto drive’ car on the motorway with the nominal ‘driver’ playing video games. Unfortunately, the bus was so late that I yet again had to abandon any ideas of going to football. Beijing Gouan were playing at home in the Chinese Super League and the stadium was close to the bus drop off but a 90 minute delay meant we’d missed kick off. We settled for a nearby vegan burger and a pot of much needed warming tea instead!
