Day 1 - visit to the Great Wall of China

The construction of the China Great Wall started during the Warring States Period on 7th century B.C, it had a history of more than 2,500 years. Many dukedoms built walls in Central China to protect themselves and their northern territories. When Qin Shihuang, the first emperor in Chinese history, unified China and established the first centralized feudal state in China, he decided to have the walls linked up and extended.

There were about one million people, one-fifth of China's population at the time, were involved in the project which took more than ten years. Most of the walls we see today were rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century. It extends from Shanhaiguan Pass in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west. It is the only construction that the American astronauts could recognize with their naked eyes on their first flight to the Moon.

Those who succeeded in climbing the wall today are often regarded as "Real heroes", from this we should realize the difficulty in climbing the wall, and can imagine how difficult it is to build the Great Wall without modern machinery at that time.

In Beijing, the Great Wall is about 630 km long, 6 sections of the Great Wall have been opened to visitors. There are Badaling Section, Juyongguan Section, Simatai Section, Mutianyu Section, Jinshanling Section and Gubeikou Section.

We had arranged for a guided tour of the Badaling section of the wall which is closest to Beijing. Even this is takes a whole day. We were not sure about the food we will be getting during the day and therefore, we had a very sumptuous breakfast at the hotel, consisting of Omelets, various breads and fruits washed down with coffee. We were picked up promptly at 8:00 am by our English speaking guide along with 10 other guests in a  luxurious air-conditioned minivan. The weather in Beijing was quite hot and muggy in July temperatures were close to 100 degrees. The drive to the great wall took us almost two hours, most of it on 6 lane super highways.

Being one of world's most sought after tourist attractions, the scene at the entrance to the great wall was like a big carnival. Thousands of people with back packs and bottles of drinking water in their hands, were milling around. Our guide told us that Chairman Mao has ordained that "you are not a man, until you climb the Great Wall of China". He did not address the women on this subject! The guide warned us that it is a tough climb through some very steep steps over seven short sections of the wall that has been completely restored for tourist traffic. She told us that if you are in good physical shape, you can do this climb in about 4 hours.

Chandra and I decided to take up challenge. I remembered that the last time I was in India, I was able to climb the Hill Temple at Tirupathi  in about 2 hours and 40 minutes. So I thought this might be easier. However, the steps here are much steeper and the heat was quite intense. About half of our party gave up the fight half way through and we had a few discussions of giving up and coming down, but the male pride in me kept saying "no". So we pushed on slowly, drinking a lot of water. The Great Wall is truly amazing. It is much bigger than we had ever imagined. It snakes far into the distance and goes up and down mountains at an incredibly steep angle. Much to our surprise, the path along the top of the wall is not a smooth surface but climbs in huge steps where the wall climbs the mountainside. The steps seem to have been made for giants, and it is really hard work climbing up them. Finally after about 3 hours, We stopped at the top of the section we were on to admire the view, and it is breathtaking.   We were at the top of the last of the sections beyond which the unrestored wall sections were closed to the public. After taking some celebratory photos, We turned to come back down our breath was taken away for quite a different reason. What had seemed steep to climb looked almost vertical when you come down. I desperately wanted to come down backwards, clinging to the helpful rail, but my fear of the descent was slightly less than my fear of looking a complete idiot. I compromised, and sat down every few steps "to admire the view". If the ancient Chinese soldiers who manned the wall climbed up and down these steps every day they must have been a truly formidable bunch. And how it was built is a complete mystery to me. The great engineering marvels of the late 20th century somehow seem less marvelous after my visit to The Great Wall. it took us another 2 hours to get back to the base. The whole ordeal was so tiring, no one spoke a word during our return trip to the hotel. We were very hungry and after some rest and a shower, we had a nice big dinner at the hotel with a bottle of fine wine to celebrate our successful climbing of the great wall. The next day's plan is to visit the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace of the Chinese dynasties.

(please click on this link to see photo)