Monday, May 12, 2008 - The Great Wall at Badaling
Today Meg and I experienced one of the highlights of our trip - we climbed the Great Wall of China. The section of wall that we visited is called "The Great Wall at Badaling". This section is located approximately 44 miles to the northwest of Beijing and protects the Juyongguan Pass. This pass held strategic military significance because it led from the north to the capital city Beijing.
The Wall of Badaling has a length of 3,741 meters (~2.3 miles) with an average height of 8 meters (~26 feet) and an average width of 5.7 meters (~19 feet). It is written that the top of the wall can permit five horses to be ridden abreast. Signal towers were placed at the highest points of the wall so soldiers could warn each other of advancing enemies. The number of fires with smoke indicated roughly the size of the enemy. One fire with smoke meant about 100 men, two fires with smoke meant about 500 men, and three fires with smoke meant more than 1,000 men.
We traveled to the Wall from our hotel by bus. We were with my whole class for this journey. The trip took us about 75 minutes from our hotel in inner Beijing. We arrived at the lowest point between the north and south sections of the Badaling Wall. The weather was cold (~55 degrees), rainy, and there was a haze outside. Luckily Meg and I had purchased some new windbreakers at the Silk Market a few days earlier so we stayed warm throughout the hike. Below are pics of our arrival area from up on the Wall, my classmates waiting anxiously to climb, and a few pics from the arrival area.
I was surprised by how daunting the climb up the Wall was. For some reason both Meg and I were under the impression that once you were on top of the Wall it was pretty flat. That was a silly assumption because this section of Wall was built throughout a large range of mountains. Simply put, it was anything but flat.
There was one section specifically that got my attention. Not only was the top of the Wall steep with different size steps, there were sheer drop offs one either side in this section. It made you believe if you slipped and fell you were going to tumble a long way down. Take a look at few pics I took to show how steep it was.
As you know, I am scared of heights, so as we were walking up the steps in this section, I had to sit down and catch my breath. Fortunately, Meg made me feel like a big baby so I pushed on and made it to the top. I am glad I did because it is not everyday you get to climb the Great Wall.
The first goal on the climb is to reach the highest point of the section of the Wall we were climbing. There is a signal tower at this point that provides some great views of the countryside and other sections of the Wall. I took the following pics from this signal tower.
After spending a bit of time at the signal tower we decided to move on and compete the remainder of our trek on the Great Wall. We descended down about 100 feet to another signal tower and then ascended up to a final lookout tower (pics follow).
The lookout tower was as far as we were allowed to go on this section of the Wall. This was a much easier walk than the ascent to the first signal tower. Since I was comfortable with the heights, I was able to snap a few more good pics (below).
Once we reached the end Meg and I took a pic together and created the video below before starting our return trek back to the arrival point.
The climb down was uneventful with exception to my descent down the narrow section. Let's just say I made it down by taking one step at a time while both my hands were clenched, white knuckles and all, to the middle rail. On the way to the bottom we met up with a few of my classmates and took the pics and created the video below. My buddies Ken and Mitch were horsing around, I am glad neither one of them got thrown over.
This was by far my favorite part of the China trip. It is truly amazing that this Wall was constructed over 500 years ago. The seventeenth century observer Ferdinand Verbiest recorded that 'the seven wonders of the world put together are not comparable to this work; and all Fame hath published concerning it among the Europeans, come far short of what I myself have seen'. I have to agree, it is truly amazing.
Following our trek on the Great Wall we boarded buses and headed back to Beijing. Somewhere along the drive home is when the massive earthquake struck near Chengdu in Sichuan province. The epicenter of the quake was ~900 miles away from Beijing, but evidently buildings shook and people were evacuated in Beijing. We did not feel anything on the bus ride, but Meg was nauseated the whole drive. Maybe that was her pre-warning system for the coming earthquake. The ironic thing is that we did not even know of the earthquake until we got back to our hotel and someone mentioned it.
Fortunately, Beijing seemed to miss any damage and everyone was intact. Unfortunately, that was not the same story for the people of Sichuan province. As I write, they are still searching for missing bodies and the death toll has climbed to 15,000 people. A large portion of the dead are children that were trapped in their schools. This tragedy definitely highlights the rapid expansion that is taking place in China as millions of people are migrating from rural to urban areas. The infrastructure constructed to support these people migrating into the urban areas is not up to par and many people were killed in their houses, schools, and place of work. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those that have died.
Today was our last official day in China. We concluded with a very nice dinner at the hotel with all my classmates. It was the final time that all 61 of us will probably be in the same room together. The past two years have been an unbelievable experience in my life. I have grown both my intellect and circle of friends and it has been a true pleasure to have shared the accomplishment of my MBA with my 60 classmates.
I plan to write a summary of my trip, but let me simply conclude by saying that I am impressed by the Chinese people, their pragmatism, their culture, and their drive. They have eroded a large number of pretenses and beliefs that I came to China holding, and I look forward to establishing more direct relationships with the Chinese people as they continue to establish a free market system. Love to all.
Jason and Meg
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