Hike on the Great Wall of China

On February 18th a group of us flew from Shanghai to Beijing for our hiking trip on the Great Wall.  It is so hard for me to describe in words what the Great Wall of China is like.  The entire time I was hiking I was reminded of something my Grandpa has always told me.  He says that you can see all the pictures in the world of something, but until you are actually standing there and seeing it with your own eyes you cannot fully understand or appreciate its greatness.  I remember he told me this before I went to the Grand Canyon and it is just as true about the Great Wall of China.  I will try and show you through pictures, but I am afraid it will not do justice to this incredible wonder of the world.

We hiked for two days.  The first day we hiked from the Simatai section to the Jinshaling section and the second day we hiked a completely different section called Gubeikou.  Both of the places we hiked were not typical tourist areas.  We rarely saw anyone while we were hiking, except for the “hollow people,” as our tour guide called them.  These people are locals that follow you on your hike in hopes that you will buy a t-shirt or post card from them.  They will literally hike with you all day unless you tell them you definitely don’t want anything.  And if you tell them you want something that they have already sold out of, they will run home, get it and run back.  Don’t ask me how they find you again, but I guess as big as the wall is, there’s really only one path you can take. 

One last comment about my hike on the Great Wall: on the second day we had McDonald’s delivered to us on the Great Wall.  We didn’t want to waste time going out to lunch so our tour guide thought this would be faster.  He also thought that we would all be excited to have McDonald’s.  (Too bad I don’t even eat McDonald’s in the United States.)  He knew I didn’t eat meat so he said I could have a vegetarian burger, which turned out to be a sesame bun with mayonnaise and lettuce…. Yum.  Oh well, this trip has taught me to flexible.  Regardless of whether or not I like McDonald’s, I was pretty impressed with their delivery service.

On our final day in Beijing we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  By this time I was so exhausted from hiking that I was getting easily distracted and found myself mostly just taking pictures of little Chinese kids that I thought were funny.  (I swear I could spend this whole trip focusing on the cute kids I see in each country.  Who needs the historical sites?… Just kidding.)  Either way, it was nice to see some of Beijing, other than the Great Wall.  We also went to a tea ceremony, which was amazing, especially since I love tea so much.  That afternoon we took a flight to Hong Kong to meet the ship.