“If you haven’t been to the Great Wall, you’re not a man.” -Mao Zedong

And so today I became a man, at least according to Mao. The other infamous politician whose Great Wall quote I like is Richard Nixon’s: “It is a great wall.” I like that quote because it really sums it up quite simply. This morning, Joylani and I got up early and took at a bus three hours northeast to Jinshaling. Although there’s dozens of locations that wall-touring is allowed, from just outside Beijing to remote provinces, we chose our itinerary pretty carefully. What we didn’t want to do is what most people, mainly Chinese tourists, do; that is, visit the totally restored and super-crowded Badaling. Rather we had two criteria in selecting a wall section to visit: unrestored and relatively remote. Jinshaling fit both criteria, plus it was good option because we both thought hiking the wall would be cool and we could hike 10km from Jinshaling to Simatai, where we could catch the bus back to Beijing.

By 9:30 we were getting off the bus at Jinshaling. It was foggy and cool, which was exactly the weather we were hoping for with a 10km hike ahead of us. From the road, we couldn’t see much of the wall, except for a tower atop a nearby hill. We took a path towards the hills and then climbed stairs for a few minutes until we were walking alongside the wall. Then we came to an opening in the wall, entered, and climbed some stairs up to the elevated walkway. Being up on the wall was awesome. Above the trees and overgrowth, we could see the steep green mountains and topography. But not too far, as it was pretty overcast and misty. My eyes followed the wall as it faded into the east; as far as I could see, it was going to an uphill trek as the wall followed the mountain ridges higher.

Near Jinshaling, the wall is actually pretty restored. The perfection of it all was an obvious clue, as was the still-white-mortar and sharp contrast between parts of the wall. As we got walking though, the restoration work faded out. Ah, this was what we came for. Well, it was restored in a sense, but not since the Ming dynasty several hundred years ago. Also, the villagers hawking drinks, t-shirts, and carvings thinned out.

Our hike passed through a total of 30 towers, so we had some idea of our progress and pace as we walked. Some towers were pretty intact still, while others were in various stages of ruin. Some had walls left, while other just had a pillar or portions of a wall standing. The hike was a lot of up and down, as the wall snaked up and down mountain ridges. The towers often marked inflection points in the walls slope or sat at the tops of a mountain. It was so majestic to look at, while rugged to walk. As we got further from Jinshaling, the smooth paved walkway gave way to rubble. The top of the wall was a collection of broken and uneven stones, many turned into grey and white dust. Some parts of the wall had been destroyed and we had to detour on the ground or tread carefully around a big gap in the walkway. The ruins were what made it interesting too. After a month and a half in China, where everything is perfect and even old things are totally restored and new, it was nice to be somewhere not yet restored.

The hike was pretty difficult though. Despite the cool weather and relatively easy terrain, it was still super humid and the walk consisted of incredibly steep inclines and descents. I sweated through my shirt and our backpack pretty quickly, although I never got hot the entire day. The ups and downs were brutal, but didn’t seem so bad. Nothing seems so bad after our Nepal trek though. Sometimes it felt like we were going up 60-degree inclines. Climbing stairs was exactly that, climbing. Coming down was even more difficult, with all the loose stones. Joylani almost started a landslide, when she accidentally knocked a stone that fell a few steep steps, while I fell on my but once descenting. This kind of leads me to my next point, which Joylani also touched on: why was the wall built? Obviously, we all know the wall was built to protect the borders of the kingdom, but why here? Many of the ridges are impossible to even climb, much less attack. Looking at the terrain had us scratching our heads about why. Whatever the reason, it was a nice walk.

After 30 towers and 4 hours, including lunch and a few breaks, we made it to Simatai. A good thing we were stopping at Simatai too, because the wall continued up a mountain so high that it disappeared into the overcast sky. We’d had enough walking for one day. But it was the best day I’ve had in a long while. It’s the first time we’ve been out of a city in weeks and it felt great. Plus, trekking on the wall is something we’ve both been wanting to do for a while and seeing the Great Wall was obviously on our must-do list for our trip. Its not everyday you get to see the Great Wall, much less walk along its beautiful ruins with barely anyone else around. And like Mao said, now I’m a man.