that big wall that everyone goes on and on about…

like eating a taco without cheese or watching an almodovar film without subtitles, something would be sorely missing if you tripped to beijing without visiting "the great wall of china".

this incredible structure is known in chinese as 萬里長城, meaning ‘the long wall of 10,000 li’ (li is a chinese unit of measurement equaling about 500 meters). the fortification was built between the 5th century bc and the beginning of the 17th century. the idea that they’d let thousands and thousands of tourists anywhere near it, much less use it as a jungle gym, seems insane. but this isn’t some relic able to be stored on the shelves of an aging museum; the wall is 6,352 km (3,948 miles) long. it was originally constructed “in order to protect the various dynasties from raids by Hunnic, Mongol, Turkic, and other nomadic tribes coming from areas in modern-day Mongolia and Manchuria.” [wikipedia] but it now serves an arguably better purpose as a teacher of history, a taker of breaths and an inspiration for the imagination.
we’d read a lot about the tourist cattle herds led to the well-known and fully-restored sections of the wall and we vowed to avoid those spots. we’d toyed with the idea of hiring a taxi for the day to take us out of town where the wall remains in a more natural state, unrestored, and is less of a tourist trap. seeing as how we couldn’t manage to catch a cab to take us down the street because of the may day holiday, we knew that just wasn’t feasible. we were talking to a fellow at the hostel [he apparently worked there, although what he did other than hang out with the tourists and practice english is fairly unclear] about our dilemma. he said the hostel offers tours to some of the main parts of the wall, which we immediately but politely declined. then he whipped out some pictures and begin to pitch the ‘secret wall’ tour they’d just started. we laughed aloud at the assertion that such a large, well-documented structure could be a secret. he went on to explain it was a section of the wall the owner had recently come across that runs through an out of the way village. he'd done some exploring and realized that with just a bit of hiking you could reach a part of the wall that no tourists, other than those on this special tour deal, knew about. we’d already taken a liking to this fellow and decided to heed his advice, which meant waking at the crack of dawn the next day. we cobbled together a breakfast of dumplings and fresh bread from the vendors hawking at 6 am before piling into a few vans. there were about 20 of us total. we traveled around an hour and a half outta beijing, tracing the path of the wall along the way. we passed numerous mobbed watchtowers, smoothly restored walls and stairs peppered with primary colored flags and hawkers.

it was about this time that the number 3 biggest travelers’ nightmare happened to me…ranking right after getting murdered/assaulted and getting your wallet/moulah stolen…my camera broke. why, of all the moments to crap out, would it have happened en route to such a picturesque and quintessential travel experience? that means that every photo used in this post is either carrie’s or liz’s. thanks ladies. so our vans turned off the main road, traveled a bit more and parked in this desolate village. the fella from the hostel went in and returned with a guy wielding 2 huge machetes. i was starting to wonder what the hell we'd gotten ourselves into. we trailed behind them up to the edge of a dry forest.

he used the knives to bushwhack a lengthy path up to the wall.

when we climbed on to the crumbling ruins it was nothing but vast land, beautiful silence and the ancient structure snaking for as far as you could see with no other people in sight.


well, except these guys [note the 3 tiny ant-like spots] who were wearing official looking armbands. their job was obviously something other than stopping random tourists from scrambling onto the wall.


in some places it was big and majestic…



and in some places it was almost completely eroded…


it was amazing...in every direction, the wall spread out, snaking and winding and dipping and rising and turning back on itself.


we were able to go slow, enjoying the view, the air, and each other’s company.


it was nearly impossible not to be overwhelmed by imagining how the wall had been constructed; all the rocks, earth, mud, sweat, blood, time and energy that had been poured into this unfathomable dream, that had been molded into this unreal structure.


we hiked about 10 km along the wall. perhaps most toursits don't make it out here because it really was a bit challenging. often steep, with loose rocks and crumbling footholds, occasionally requiring all four limbs. unfortunately, eventually we had to dismount and make our way back to the village.

we caroused with a handful of locals for a bit.


and then we were lead into this newly built, strangely out of place brick patio area where we were treated to an incredible vegetarian lunch of wild mountain greens and plants cooked every which a way imaginable.

guess this is the village’s attempt at gaining their share of the tourist market. if only all organized tours could be so unobtrusive and genuine.
there were even coolers of moderately chilled beers waiting for us. we cracked the tall boys and toasted with strangers to this most amazing and indescribable adventure that we’d been lucky enough to experience together.