The great firewall of China part 4: The Great Wall

8/28 Lukas organized a group of people he knew from his internship
organization to go for a 2 day trek along what he considers the best
part of the great wall. He has been to many, many different parts and
this was by far his favorite part he said. Joining us in our
multinational group was Snow (china), Lin (china), Kaitlyn (Seattle),
David (Colombia), Rory (Calgary), Vincent (france), Jerry (UK), Reva
(France), Carolie (Germany), and Ogla (Ukraine). I sat on the bus
there with Jerry and he was explaining his job to me, which was quite
interesting, especially since he felt like he was actually doing
something good and making a difference, unlike most of the other
people on the trip with their jobs. Jerry was working on installing
wind turbines in China.

The part of the wall we did was Jiankao (sp?). It's a completely
unrestored part of the wall, so it is crumbling and overgrown with
plants in some places. First we had a steep climb up to the wall, and
then the walk along it began. This part of the wall is crazy
beautiful as it snakes along the ridgetops (see attached pics, if they
work...it's all in chinese, so I am assuming I attached it correctly)
of steep and gorgeous mountains. The view of the mountains around the
wall are stunning as well. So the two combined is just jaw dropping.
As the wall is not restored it gets sketchy in a bit. Before we
started on the trip lukas said he thought at some point the group
would have to split up and go our separate ways when we got to tougher
parts. There were two difficult and sketchy areas. 4 of the girls
had some difficulty on the first very steep part, but we were able to
get them up by helping them find hand holds and footholds and by
taking their packs for them. The 2nd obstacle was a jimmy rigged
ladder made from some tree branches. The ladder was very sturdy, but
the problem was that it was over a very high and exposed drop and the
ladder was missing it's top rungs, which meant that you had to use
your strength to pull yourself up without having rungs and just using
the vertical poles. It was definitely difficulty and got the heart
beating, but it wasn't really that bad. However, the no wrungs scared
several of the girls and even 2 of the guys. We thought we were going
to have to split the group here, but we managed to get everyone up by
again taking backpacks and then setting up a belay device to give the
nervous people some security in case they were to fall. It really
wasn't too much of a risk of falling as the ladder was sturdy and
there were some footholes to use at the top where the rungs were
missing. It was more the fear of heights that got most people. After
that last obstacle, it was just a steep walk up to the large 9 eyes
tower where we spent the night. The view from this tower, one of the
highest points on the wall, was simply stunning especially during
sunset and sunrise. You could just look straight down on the other
towers and parts of the wall. The next day, the hike was half along
un restored wall (but easier) and then onto the Mutiany portion of the
wall, a full restored area catering to chinese tourists (cable car up
to the top so you don't have to hike). This part of the wall was also
quite impressive and it was nice to see what the wall must have looked
like back in the day when it was built.
That evening Lukas and I went to one of the big markets in beijing
where you buy all the fake things. He is leaving to go back to Czech
R soon, and he needed a suitcase. I am heading to the himalaya
shortly, so I also could use a nice jacket. I remember when Nathan
Handel came back from studying in China and he had all those fake
north face items. Well they had all that there. North face, marmot,
mammut, arc teryx, etc. Of course I was only interested in outerwear,
but you could buy anything you wanted in this place from designer
shirts, to suits to electronics to shoes. Just anything. And of
course at REDICULOUSLY cheap prices. They are fake items, so probably
not quite as good as the real thing nor coming with the lifetime
guarentee that say marmot gives, but for the price you could by like
10 of the things to 1 in america. And when you think about it, most
of these things are made in asia anyways, so they are probably just
copied from the real factory. A quick look at the tags on the stuff
I have here shows that. My mountain hardware tech shirts (made in
vietnam), my north face fleece and TNF shorts (made in china), my
marmot rain shell (made in cambodia), my hiking boots (made in
singapore) and my REI shorts (made in malaysia). I do have a few
local things still though (Kelty daypack made in Boulder, CO and
Osprey backpack made in Cortez, CO). I ended up buying a really nice
mammut softshell jacket for 15 bucks (probably close to 300 not on
sale back home). The fakes are done really well too. They look just
like the originals and even come with the same tags describing the
product, etc, etc. Lukas got a nice swiss suitcase set for 20 bucks.
That night Lukas and his friends I had met while I was there had a bit
of a party at Helen's.