Vast Chinese Walls Series: Feral Ming Walls

Crowning rugged mountains north of Beijing

Feral Ming walls through verdant Jiankou sing

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We hiked three consecutive days on unrestored sections of late 16^th century Ming Great Wall from The Lindesay's Barracks at Jiankou 75 kilometers north of Beijing. It was a test. One that became more formidable as the days marched on. Kilometer after kilometer after kilometer of climbing, clinging, and scrambling, picking, fearing. It was awesome!

Day 1. Arriving in the mountains after 11:00 p.m. due to a flight delay from Dunhuang, we were awoken four hours later to begin our first summit. A steep, rocky climb in pitch black night. Grogginess and the overnight chill quickly turned to alertness and sweat as we made our way as carefully as possible. Tripping over rocks and roots on the invisible, twisting trail made me appreciate my hiking boots and the importance of balance. A homemade, wooden ladder with rung No. 2 broken greeted us when we finally emerged from the path at the base of the Wall. We scampered up into and onto the Zhengbeilou command tower just in time to watch the sun pop over the ridge at 5:17 a.m.

The vast forest and mountain landscape blossomed around us in the splendor of a new day. We were on the roof of a Great Wall watchtower, above the mountains, on top of the world. No complaints about rising so early. For someone like me who has been fascinated with the Great Wall since I was a child, the morning was...perfect. After sunrise, we set out further up to the Ox Horn, picking our way along broken-down and overgrown sections of Wall including a section with a strenuous 38-degree pitch. I owned rubbery legs and a cloudy mind by the time we dragged ourselves back for a nap at 10 a.m.

Days 2 and 3. Amidst the spread of untamed vegetation and physical deterioration, the Day 2 Vast Wall hike was somewhat milder, though reaching this section required a forest walk and vigorous climb up and down a slick mountainside to access the magnificent ridge-top wall. The sweep of North China filled with Great Wall presented itself in all its glory.

Day 3 was a six-hour, adrenalin-filled adventure that introduced a new element, fear. My heart raced as the massive boulder blocking our way with perpendicular drops on either side loomed in front of us. As we contemplated what to do, a companion’s comment closed off debate. We were hiking with another family this day. At the sight of the unforgiving obstacle, the mother came out with an anguished plea, "I do not want to see my daughter die." We backtracked and fortunately found a bypass on a narrow path paralleling the Wall.

We soon encountered another obstacle, however, that afforded no detour. William calls it the Face. We crawled our way up a sheer, irregularly-spaced, 75-degree set of stairs and later crab-walked back down on rubble as our loop hike continued. But even nerves in overdrive did not dampen, maybe they enhanced, the spectacular views, the splendid isolation, the sense of diving into history.

We did run into a couple dozen other adventurers on this May Day holiday weekend, but in a China chock-a-block full of domestic travelers (think 65,000 plus at tourist wall Badaling on the same day), we were alone. We made it back to The Barracks not only to devour a homemade dumpling feast accompanied by the sweetest, most succulent cantaloupe I have ever tasted, but in time to beat the weather. In the afternoon, the wind whipped up, the temperature dropped 10-15 degrees, and rain fell hard. The perfect afternoon to hunker inside, read a book, rest, and reflect.