The Greatest Wall

Ladies and gents this is the moment you’ve waited for…

The Great Wall of China has always seemed so far away to me. It was never on my bucket list because I never imagined I’d visit China, nor could I really wrap my head around what you’d even do there. But as it turned out I did end up coming to China, so it seemed like the right thing to do to combine a work trip to Beijing with a weekend hike along the greatest wall I’ve ever seen. Spoiler alert: I am now a full convert and now care deeply that everyone I know goes to visit the Wall if they get a chance. It’s great (as they say).

This blog was originally meant to be about our trip to Beijing. We were there the weekend before the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, the city was gearing up for its celebrations so, in my head, it seemed like some juicy content. I know, I thought, we’ll go to the Forbidden City, visit Tiananmen Square, spend some time in a Hutong, eat Peking duck and do all the things a good tourist in Beijing does. What I hadn’t accounted for in Beijing’s preparations for the anniversary was that it would basically go into lockdown, with heightened security, and enjoying the view - or as the police consider it, loitering around the streets - meant you will get shooed away like an unwanted stray moggy with a case of fleas.

So my advice for visiting Beijing the weekend before its anniversary celebrations is: don’t.

I guess that’s still useful right? I do all the hard work so you don’t have to.

But what I can write about, with enthusiasm and a fading memory (I’m forcing myself to write this now so it doesn’t completely disappear from my mind), is the Great Wall. Having people in Beijing to give us tips, we were recommended to go to the Mutianyu section, about two hours north of central Beijing - so that’s where we headed, without even knowing what our alternatives were. In true China fashion, our transport there and payment was all arranged on WeChat through a company a friend of a friend knew and recommended, and arrangements consisted of someone telling us to be waiting outside our hotel at 7am on Sunday morning. I don’t even think we ever found out the name of our driver, but on Sunday there he was, sure enough, 7am sharp, ready to pick us up. With some broken communication in Chinese and blind faith, off we went.

Tip: 7am sounds like an early start but it’s totally, 100% worth it, not least because you get some great pics for the ‘gram when you’re the only ones there. You’re done before lunch and are heading home just as the tourists, bucket-list-ticker-offers and I’ve-seen-it-now-so-I-don’t-need-to-do-any-more-climbing-and-I’ll-just-sit-down-here-in-the-way groups start to arrive.

When we got to Mutianyu our lovely nameless driver parked up, walked us to the ticket section and helped us buy our tickets before sending us on our way and making himself comfortable in a nearby cafe (read: street side stall which sold water and had a couple of plastic seats outside) until our promised return at 12:30pm. We paid 180RMB per person for entry and a return cable car ticket up the mountain to the Wall, through lush green trees, and at the top, well, that first sight of the Wall - the one that everyone knows from the pictures - was absolutely breathtaking.

Arriving so early meant that it was silent; there was only us and a couple of others around, meaning you take your time to marvel at the incredible structure, which is actually really narrow, only around two or three meters wide. After every 5 minutes or so walking you would come to a small tower building where you could shelter from the strong sun and take a rest, as well as using each tower's number to map how far you’ve come.

When you get on to the Wall, your only options are, obviously, left or right. We had been advised to turn left and had also been promised a toboggan ride would take us down the mountain at the end, so off we went, taking our time to take photos and not having to rush up any of the steep hills that would greet us. When the steepest of the steep arrived it was approximately four hundred million steps followed by an even steeper 10 steps - not dissimilar from climbing a ladder - to a small tower/rest stop at the top. Ash decided to run up it (weird) and after we had spent a while at the top admiring the view (amazingly there was a man up there with a little stall selling water, beer (!), fridge magnets, and ice pops - I don’t envy his commute), we were faced by a barricade in front of the next section of wall, saying it was under renovation and tourists are unable to pass. No toboggan in sight. Where were we?

The only solution was to buy a fridge magnet (we should probably make that poor man’s daily hike to work worth it) and head back the way we had come. It was around 10am at this point and once we had walked back to where we started, we discovered that the toboggan ride was 8 buildings away to the right. Challenge on! We power walked our way there, dodging the ever increasing number of tourist groups, and eventually - ta dah! - we reached the toboggan.

We stopped at one of the little stalls for a 70RMB Coke Zero and bought our 100RMB ticket, and off we went down the hill on our little individual metal karts, speeding down through green trees and great views. Despite the woman in front of us who was seemingly afraid of going any faster than 1mph, it was really great fun and definitely worth doing. Alternatively, you can take a chair lift (it's as rickety as it sounds), or you can head back to where we had started and take the cable car down again.

By midday our phones had recorded more than 10,000 steps and 100 floors climbed - time for a small sleep in the car on the way back to Beijing, then to a bar for a well earned beer at an Irish bar to watch England in the Rugby World Cup!

It was probably one of the most unique and memorable experiences I’ve ever had, and I feel very lucky to have been able to visit. Whilst Beijing itself isn’t my favourite city, it’s definitely worth taking a trip to ChangCheng, which, I have to tell you, absolutely cannot be seen from space.