Hike through Middle Earth

Mao Zedong once said that “He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.” I am now a real man. Today, Matt and I traversed the Great Wall of China. You can’t just go to ‘The Great Wall of China,’ though. You have to pick your part of the once 6000km wall carefully. Most tourists go visit the most restored portion of the wall in Badiling. Most photos in guidebooks are taken at this section of the wall and, accordingly, every vendor of tacky goods worth their weight in Mao Zedong alarm clocks has set up shop all around its perimeter. The second most touristed section in Mutianyu, though reportedly not as bad, is also moving in a similar direction. Wishing for a more spiritual experience and not really feeling the need to buy copies of the Teachings of Mao Zedong, we opted for a less traveled route: a 10km hike from Jinshanling to Simitai.

After a 110km bus ride out of central Beijing, we found ourselves at the gates to the Great Wall… or rather the ticket window (the China Tourism Board has levied a fee to roam freely on the premises of each section of the Great Wall that can be visited). Several minutes later we had reached our first rampart. We were standing on the Great Wall of China.

Climbing on the crumbled remains of stone steps that restoration efforts had clearly passed by, we ascended from Jinshanling farther up into the mountains.

From the vantage point of raised ramparts, I gazed in awe at the wall snaking off into the horizon in both directions, dividing the deep valleys below. Standing on the Great Wall, you don’t feel like you’re anywhere on Earth. It just doesn’t seem tangible. Yet there you are, standing on a 2000 year old part of history with nothing around to interrupt your journey but steep drop-offs and moving vistas. Matt commented that Peter Jackson could have well been inspired by the wall in molding his creation of some of the sets from Middle Earth. I’d have to agree.

On the decent into Simitai it was clear at which point the restoration efforts had begun, as our rocky and tempestuous route gave way to paved stone walkways that could even support a car if need be.

From the front entrance of the Simitai portion of the wall, there are two ways to get to the parking lot where the bus was waiting for us. One was via swinging across a zipline extending a hundred meters over an emerald green lake like India Jones. The other was a 15 minute walk by foot. You can guess which path we took.