Oh What a Week!

The Stairmaster 10,000
October 1 is a national holiday, similar to our 4th of July, and to celebrate we got the whole week off of school. When you ask our students they are not excited about holidays because their teachers give them a ridiculous amount of work so they cannot enjoy the time off. However, I was able to enjoy my week off.
I started the week by exploring lots of new places in Beijing, wherever the Subway could take me! We ate at many fun new restaurants and spent the nights out in Beijing finding fun places to shop and hang out. It was a blast to explore and feel more freedom and independence. I also had some down time to work on lesson plans and prepare for my elective that I start teaching this week.
The greatest part of my break was getting to camp on the Great Wall of China!! Yes I conquered the great wall and I think that I can say that because I had quite the experience. Let me start from the beginning… Our plan was to take a train to Wubeiko and taxi to Semitei, then we would hike back to Wubeiko. We had planned on camping two nights and hiking one full day and two half days. I did not fully realize what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this trip. I did not think about the very heavy camping pack that I would have to carry and that the wall was made of up of all steps. When we got to the wall I was exhausted by the long hike just to get to the wall, and I was convinced that I would not make it b/c my bag weighed too much and it was just too hot. Besides the rough start everything started out according to plan until early evening of our first night.
We started hiking at 12:30 Tuesday afternoon and we had planned on making it a leisurely day and not kill ourselves hiking b/c the great wall of China is made up of all steps. We were having fun taking pictures because it was a beautiful blue skied day, and we have not seen many of those since the Olympics have been over. Then as it was nearing evening time we were coming up on a lady who sells tickets to get into different parts of the wall, and usually she will sell you a ticket for the next day so you can camp in her area. However, she said that they are patrolling that area more and we would not be able to stay there (technically you are not suppose to camp on the wall). We were at tour 14 and she suggested we go to tower 27, and it was getting close to dark. So at this point we have no choice but to pick up the pace and book it to tower 27 before dark. When we get to tower 27 we found a tourist spot and realized she must have been mistaken because we needed to camp at an unrestored part of the wall so no one will see us. So we continued on as the sun continued to drop in the sky, and some of our group members were far behind us as we were rushing to find a camp spot. Finally as it was just getting dark we found a rundown tour (tower 35). It was a step drop to get down to the tour and as we got there photographers were just leaving and they were holding us back with their arms telling us to turn back because it was too dangerous. We had to fight them off to let us pass, and Tamara and I set up the tents in the dark as Ben and Andrew went back for the rest of our group to show them the way. Finally we were able to settle in for the night and give our aching bodies a rest.
We got up at 6 am to watch the sunrise the next day and continued on our journey at 7:30. We decided since we went over half the journey in one day that we would try to catch the 4:00 train on Wednesday instead of staying another night. Ben said that it should be a leisurely day b/c we did not have far to go. Once again we were deceived. We camped near the military zone and so to continue on we had to get off the wall and hike the mountains until we came upon the wall in a tourist area. We hiked down a mountain to walk the valleys and we came upon a small Chinese village where we ask for directions. That sent us to another Chinese village where a man took us to the green dot path. For the rest of the day we followed green dots all the way to Wubeiko. However, the path on the mountains was not very clear, there was brush up to our shoulders and we were scratched up by thorns.
The whole time we were walking we always had the wall in sight to make sure we were walking parallel with it. Once we had passed the military zone we were at the bottom of huge hill that would take us back to the wall and we were told the town would appear shortly. We decided to have a small snack at the bottom of the hill at 11:15am and then we would eat lunch in the town and explore before our train. We made onto the wall and saw the tower where the town was suppose to be. We anxiously arrived and to our disappointment there was NO town. We continued on but at this point we had not seen another hiker all day and the wall was very treacherous, some parts was only a path big enough for one person to walk on and there were no sides just at 20 foot drop off. Some parts were very scary with broken down steps. I slide down a dirt path with nothing on either side and it is a miracle I kept my balance with my pack on my back.
So we marched onward and eventually came to the end of the wall where it was broken down and you could not go on, we searched and found a green dot path in the weeds and started following it as the town slowly appeared. However, the path ended on the edge of the mountain, and we knew we could not go straight down so we searched for a path and after making a long path of our own through the brush we connected to another path that lead us to a cornfield and finally right into someone’s backyard of the town we were looking for. At this point we were on a time crunch rushing to get down because our train was leaving in 45 minutes. So when we walked down a dirt path that lead to a house we all rejoiced as the Chinese were staring oddly at us and laughing because we looked ridiculous. But we had time to grab an ice cream treat and head to our train. We made the train and five hours later were back at good old Ren Da FuZhong .
Even though our trip was not leisurely and at some points very unpleasant, it was an amazing experience, seeing the wall is incredible and to be out in nature and enjoy the beauty was breathtaking. We figured out we walked about 15 miles between Tuesday at 12:30 and Wednesday at 3:30. However those 15 miles were mostly stairs or hills. This was an incredible experience and I can still feel the wall with me everytime I use the stairs or where a back pack of any kind. I wish you were all here to experience it with me!