Around the World

Hiking the Great Wall of China: Jinshanling to Simitai

When the alarm went off at 4am, we groaned and debated whether we should hike the Great Wall of China from Jinshanling to Simitai another day. Begrudgingly though, we dragged ourselves out of bed and made our way to the Dongzhimen bus station. Most folks doing this hike book through a tour group. But to save money (nearly US$72 total), we decided to go the do-it-yourself route. We saved money, but it wasn’t without a certain amount of hurdle-jumping.

We soon found that jumping these hurdles at 4am is not our strong suit. The route itself was a bit vague. We couldn’t confirm the Beijing bus station still existed (a rule I started to enforce after navigating ourselves to more than one nonexistent bus station!). However with no one able to confirm for us the existence or nonexistence of the public bus station (or even its exact location), we decided to put my rules aside and just set out for it anyway.

When we reached the subway stop, we looked at the exit map to determine where the public bus station might be located but came up empty handed. Standing there perplexed, a friendly woman approached us and motioned asking us where we wanted to go. In our usual method of pointing, we showed her our final destination of Jinshanling. She immediately understood us and led us directly to the bus station as well as the awaiting bus! Without her help, we would have totally missed the station as it was located within an unlit parking garage.

Thus far, the do-it-yourself route was fairly easy. We boarded the bus and made our way to Miyun, where we were to catch further transportation to the Jinshanling entrance. As soon as we hit the first bus stop of Miyun, however, a man started yelling for us to get off the bus. Startling us awake, he immediately got my heart racing by yelling “this is your stop! This is your stop!”. My first instinct was NOT to believe him. But, he was gesturing and yelling so we got out of our seats. Was he the bus driver? I wondered. Totally dazed, he literally pulled us off the bus. I was resisting by this time while yelling back to Chris whether we should get off. Neither of us knew, so I eventually stopped resisting and off the bus we went. If there’s one thing to learn, it’s listen to your intuition.

Left standing on the side of a street far outside the city center, a flock of taxi drivers surrounded us squawking exorbitant rates to get to Jinshanling. Admittedly, I am not a morning person. Mix that type of personality with rate gouging taxi drivers and you don’t get a pretty scene. I believe I was hissing, so Chris wisely intervened.

The ringleader of the group (the one that pulled us off the bus) started negotiations with Chris while I stood by glowering. With his first offer coming in just above a full tour price (US$60), we started walking. I was certain we could find the right bus stop and further transportation to Jinshanling on our own. To his benefit though, he never gave up. Nearly 1/2 mile later, he finally met our asking price of 140 yuan (US$20) for a ride to Jinshanling with pickup from Simitai four hours later.

This 12km (7 mi) hike along the unrestored portion of the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simitai is amazing. As we started up the trail to the wall, touts here and there offered us water. When we said “no, thank you” a “maybe later” always followed. We learned quite quickly that “maybe later” really means maybe later and the touts will follow you for the whole hike. We thought it was a nice way of saying no,but that proved to be wrong. We eventually had to eek out the “no, not maybe later” to a much disappointed face.

Once we hit the wall, all the frustrations of the morning just fell away. Walking on the crumbling stones from the Ming Dynasty, we recalled that as children we never thought we’d hike the Great Wall of China. We remembered dreaming of these far off places from our National Geographic, and it seemed like a real accomplishment to finally be here.

The Jinshanling section sports 67 towers with 2 beacons and 5 passes. What’s this mean for the average bloke? A lot of hard hiking. The wall slithers along the highest hills providing the hiker with great views from above. It’s crumbling facade invokes a certain amount of peacefulness among fellow hikers as well. Most talked in hushed voices or simply enjoyed the solitude silence brings. Knowing we were walking on the same bricks that messengers and guards traveled centuries ago, we felt awe at the long and lasting achievement of the Ming Dynasty. Without a doubt, it’s in the top standing as one of our favorite hikes of this trip.

More pictures from our Great Wall hike can be seen on Chris’ and Jodi’s respective flickr pages.

Tour of Beijing

From Xian we took the deluxe Z train to Beijing. The Z trains are highly touted for their speed and luxury, but we didn’t see much of a difference between these trains and the others in China despite the fact that the ticket costs an extra US$15.

We shared our compartment with two Chinese aviation engineers. They spoke pretty good English, and we enjoyed sharing our phrase books with each other. They owned a particularly funny phrase book entitled “Understanding crazy Americans”. It contained all sorts of American idioms that would be utterly confusing to someone just learning English—like when we ask a question but it’s really a command. I do this to Chris all the time saying “can you do this or that” rather than the simpler request of” please take out the garbage”.

Upon reaching Beijing we planned out our six days of visiting the city. I can’t claim that we used our time wisely though. Looking back, we really saw very little of Beijing. It seems in every large city we wander quite a bit rather than making it to our destination quickly. We’re good navigators, but we move with the speed of turtles it seems. During our six day tour, we visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Great Wall; we dined on Peking Duck, dumplings, and street food; and we shopped the likes of silk street and bar street while a tailor speedily sewed three cashmere suits for us.

We situated ourselves near the Forbidden City at the Jade International Hostel. With a dumpling shop right around our corner and nightly cheap eats just blocks away, this is a perfect spot for budget travelers. We spent our first full day touring the Forbidden City. Established during the Ming and Qing dynasties, it took workers 14 years to build the imperial palace. Today 980 buildings exist within the city walls. However, many fires swept through the complex in different years so we’re not sure how many original structures (if any) still stand.

Walking through the giant gates and enormous courtyards made us want to watch the “Last Emperor” to gain some insight into the clothing and way of life in the city. Until 1912, twenty-four emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties called the Forbidden City home. When the last emperor of China was ousted from the city walls, the complex became a museum.

Many relics can be seen here today, that is if you can weasel your way close enough to the glass enclosures. Chinese tourists flock to the Forbidden city in droves. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Within the city, a museum houses clocks given to the emperors as gifts from around the world. Much of the collection comes from the imperial workshop, while many others were given as gifts. It’s an impressive display of craftsmanship, but a pity that few are still in working order.

We strolled through the imperial garden and came upon two trees intertwined. The imperial gardener planted the trees after a marriage and they grew together so that you could barely make one out from the other. They reminded me of my favorite quote from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin—”Love is a temporary madness…And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part…” Like Pelagia’s parents, these trees in the imperial garden had lost all their pretty blossoms but were one tree not two.

Across from the Forbidden City lies Tiananmen Square. We walked across the courtyard within just a few minutes and then looked at each other perplexed of what to do next. When in doubt, go shopping. And, that’s exactly what we did.

We spent a good part of one day looking for Yangsho market near “bar street”. This famous market housed in a four-story building is home to “Alice My Tailor.” Based on recommendations from the internet, we headed directly to this tailor shop to scout out their fabrics.

Being sufficiently impressed with their range of fabrics we entered negotiations but not before slipping that we’d already bought suits in Vietnam. This little slip helped us greatly in our negotiations as the saleswomen started immediately with our highest asking price. In a matter of minutes, we had her to the lowest price we thought she’d accept at US$100 per suit. Perhaps, we could get her down to US$80 with more negotiations—but we thought $100 was a fair price. In three days time, our tailor made suits were ready to go (of course, we returned for one fitting during those three days but it’s still an exceptional turnaround)

A visit to Beijing wouldn’t be complete without dining on Peking duck. We chose Quanjude Restaurant for our first Peking duck experience since its supposedly world famous as the best in Beijing. With five floors of tables, this restaurant means business. They swiftly walked us to our table and quickly led us through the menu. We ordered a half a duck with the usual accompaniments of green onions, plum sauce, and pancakes. We didn’t really know what to expect but luckily the waitress led us through how to properly eat our meal while the carver expertly sliced the meat at our table.

Peking duck reminded me more of mu shu pork than anything else. With little pancakes laid on our plate, we spread plum sauce and added green onions and roasted duck to it before rolling the pancake up.

Along with duck meat, we received a plate of deep roasted duck fat dipped in sugar. It was melt in your mouth goodness. Yes, I know it doesn’t sound appetizing but believe me—-it was quite tasty.

Even though we enjoyed this experience, we learned duck is not one of our favorite dish. We liked the plum sauce with pancakes much more than the duck itself.

During another dining adventure, we headed to the night market where stalls sold all sorts of delicacies from sea stars to noodles. We avoided the stalls of scorpions, beetles, snakes, and the like and chose instead to dine at a stall where several locals gathered. It looked like a mu shu pork joint. We ordered up two pancakes layered with plum sauce and filled with pork and vegetables. They turned out to be quite tasty but with so many dining options presenting themselves in Beijing, we never returned for more.

The mud army

Visiting the Terracotta Army was one of the attractions that I was most excited to see on our tour through China. I still remember going to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle when they displayed an exhibit on China. There were wax and metal artists creating miniature statues of lions and an exhibit on how silk was produced. But the highlight for me was the  section on the Terracotta Army. I even have a mini Terracotta Warrior statue that I keep on my desk at home. So, it was a given that I wanted to see the real thing.

At the train station we caught the special Terracotta Army bus for the 40km trip outside the city of Xian. Since there was so much history surrounding the army we decided to hire a guide to get the whole picture.

The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers who were digging a well.The site was soon taken over by the government which quickly excavated the area. The local farmer who found the army was even there when we visited, signing copies of his latest book. We were told that for his find the government gives him about US$2000 per month; a pretty good amount for a local farmer but nothing compared to what they must take in.

The army’s purpose was to help rule another empire with Shi Huang Di (the First Emperor of Qin) in the afterlife. In the three pits there are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses—the majority of which are still buried. The head, arms, legs, and torsos were created separately and then assembled. Studies show that eight face moulds were most likely used, and then clay was added to provide individual facial features.

I always thought that the excavated warriors looked exactly how they looked the day that they were buried but I was grossly mistaken. In fact, five years after the death of the emperor, a raid on the tomb started a fire that allegedly lasted three months. Because of this, only one statue has survived intact: a statue of a kneeling archer. The rest of the warriors on display have been painstakingly glued back together. Another interesting thing that we learned was that all of the warriors were originally painted. Our guide explained that after being exposed to the air the natural dye on the terracotta disappears after a few days. Thus much of the army remains buried until scientist find a way to preserve the colors.

More pictures from our visit to the Terracotta warriors can be seen on Chris’ and Jodi’s respective flickr pages.

Nearing the end of the line (with posts to come)

Well, it’s probably no surprise but we are again woefully behind on our posts. We’ve finished our last leg of the Trans Mongolian train along with a 12-day tour of Mongolia, and our nomadic family spring migration, and we haven’t even posted on much of China; such is the life of procrastinating travelers.

We hope you will return to read about the terracotta warriors, hiking the great wall, riding the transmongolian train, moving with the nomads, traveling through Mongolia by jeep, and touring Russia. We’re currently about to embark on whirlwind tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Thus, our blog will be quiet for another week (unless we find a few hours here and there to update it). But really, c’mon, there’s so much to see how can we possibly sit indoors waiting for slow internet connections. Yes, my patience has run out! No need to fret though, we’ve visited so many amazing places and met so many fantastic people—I cannot wait to start sharing our travels with you again.

It seems all signs from our electronics are telling us to come home. Nearly everything is on the fritz from Ipods to computers. My backpack has taken a beating as well; the zipper failed on one pocket with two others on the way, and upon leaving Mongolia, our taxi driver placed my pack in battery acid. Now I’ve got two holes burnt through my only good pocket!

So, after nearly 10 months of travel we’ve decided to come home. Over the next week, we’ll be strolling through Red Square, touring the Kremlin, getting lost in the Hermitage, and marveling at the Petrodvorets. Much to our surprise, we arrived just as Russia is celebrating Independence Day (or Russia Day) so tons of festivities are ongoing. We’re looking forward to all the celebrations! Then on June 17,  it’s home sweet home.

We’re a bit sad to bid adieu to traveling. We’ve learned it’s our hobby, and we’ve already started to plan our next big trip (that is, when we can afford it again!). We’re thinking the Galapagos or my much dreamed about African safari. The one thing that really surprised me about this trip is that we’ve learned you can travel with just small amounts of time just as easily as with heaps of time, you just take smaller trips…..

Mountain of a Billion Steps

While in Chengdu, we decided to do a training hike for the Great Wall of China. We should know by now that our training hikes are always far more difficult than the actual hike. But, alas we never learn. Emei Shan or the Golden Summit Ascension of a billion stairs as we now refer to it is a 30 km (18 mi) hike up (or down) steep, concrete stairs. There are many ways to do this hike, but we decided to do what we thought was an easy route (it wasn’t!). But, we don’t think an easy route exists on this mountain.

The mountain is renowned for its sunrises and emerald light refraction off the surrounding mountains . Only the luckiest of souls get to witness these events. As fog obscured most of our views, you can count us in the unlucky group along with scores of other people that make this trek.

Anyway, we set off by bus to just 3.5 km short of the top and walked the remaining three hours to the summit. We planned to spend the night in a monastery at the Golden Summit, but upon reaching the top we learned none of the monasteries offered beds (damn the Lonely Planet!). This was after a rather strenuous slog up nearly 4 km of stairs. Our choices of lodging were fairly limited. We could walk back down to Taizi Pan monastery and pay US$7 for a bed or we could fork over US$25 to stay at a guesthouse at the summit.

By this time thick, cold fog engulfed us with the damp air settling on our bodies and making us frigidly cold. This is the first hike where our rain jackets didn’t accompany us. I regretted the decision not to take them many times. Word of advice, always carry your insulating layers and don’t listen to your husband if he tells you they’re just extra weight!

With my nose running and my limbs frozen, we chose to stay in the guesthouse. It was a bare bones sort of location, but offered heated blankets so eventually we unthawed. It also saved us the walk down and back up in the damp fog to catch the magnificent sunrise (or not in our case).

Morning came far too early. Huddled together looking out from the lobby into a wall of cold fog, we debated whether we should even attempt seeing the sunrise. The chances of actually seeing it given the fog were nil to zero, but we headed out just the same. And, we were not rewarded. The summit remained encased in fog well until 9am when we started our descent down.

All was not lost though, Chris experienced his first paparazzi moment. For some reason, Chinese tourists like to take pictures with foreigners. Plenty of fellow travelers told us about their paparazzi experiences, but thus far after two weeks in China we hadn’t experienced one. Unfortunately, I was off taking pictures in the fog and missed Chris’ whole moment in the limelight. Nevertheless, a man in a blue jumpsuit was super excited to run across Chris and even more excited to have his picture taken with him. I heard all the fuss, but didn’t realize it was over Chris. It would have been a great moment to catch. Chris kindly posed for a few pictures with complete strangers and then we headed down the mountain.

We chose to shave off two hours from our 10 hour hike down by taking the chairlift to our original starting point. This was a very good decision. We completely underestimated the difficulty of walking down stairs for 8 hours. Trust me, by the eighth hour of walking down stairs your knees ache and your legs feel as though they could easily buckle with each extra step

The monotony of the stairs was broken here and there by temples and monasteries set on the beautiful cliffside. The hike is probably best walked in late May/early June when all the rhododendrons and azaleas should be in bloom. It would be a spectacular walk with the surrounding landscape in full bloom.

In addition to the temples, monkeys often distracted us from the pain of the hike. I first learned in Thailand monkeys were no friends of mine. Emei Shan reinforced that learning experience. They are my nemesis. A female with her baby and a large male blocked our path at one point. Chris happily snapped picture after picture, so I thought it might be ok for me to do the same. Um no, it wasn’t. As soon as the female caught a glimpse of me and my camera, she charged me with her baby in tow. I, in turn, shrieked. My shrieking caught the attention of the male, and he followed suit. Chris stood guard over me but that didn’t stop them from flanking to either side. Both were baring their teeth with their eyes glowering directly at me. This all happened in a matter of seconds. Our thumping of sticks did little to ward them off, and my shrieking reached a hysterical pitch. Other monkeys came from elsewhere. There were at least five in total closing in on us. Luckily a woman with a broom came to our rescue. They all scampered at the sight of the broom, and we quickly made our escape.

From this point forward, we ran into several monkeys but none of the groups were as bad as the ones at the bottom of the trail. Through what is deemed the “joking monkey zone,” Chinese tourists feed and tease the monkeys—making them an unruly bunch. We watched as several monkeys bit tourists. One unlucky girl found three biting monkeys attached to her. Chris helped to scare them away as I watched in total fear. A first aid monkey station even exists in this part of the trail. I wanted to take a picture of it because the signage made it unclear if it was for people or the monkeys, but a monkey standing guard warded me off with its stare so I just continued on.

Once out of the monkey zone, we felt we reached the most beautiful part of the hike. Unfortunately, we ran through this section of the trail in order to catch the last bus back to Chengdu. Waterfalls and trickling streams marked this section of the trail along with a grand temple. If we hiked this trail again, we would begin the trail at Qingyin Pavilion and enjoy the walk through this gorgeous area.