"It is a great wall."
-Richard Nixon
There was only a half day of overlap after my brother arrived and before my mother and her boyfriend departed, but you won't see me complaining about the onerous task of taking
two trips to the Great Wall within the space of a week. The closest parts of the wall are just an hour away from Beijing and a great escape from the smog and the city. In the wintertime, the dry, scrubby mountains bear a surprising resemblance to those of the San Fernando Valley, only with more history and fewer blondes.
Part I: Badaling Wall
Badaling is the most visited portion of the wall, with a highly developed tourist town spreading away from the entrance, cable cars, and a roller coaster type train that will zip you back down the mountain after you've made the hike up. Badaling's popularity derives from its proximity to Beijing, ease of transit (compared to less reconstructed and more treacherous sections), and its stunning views of hills, valleys, and the long, snaking wall stretching for miles in both directions.
We figured that during the winter the tourist hordes would be much reduced and were pleased that this was generally true, although it did take more than an hour of hiking to escape the omnipresent vendors and stage photographs that made it look as if we were the only visitors.
This shot gives a better idea of the volume of visitors as well as a view of the large sign erected to advertise/commemorate the coming Olympics. Good news for tourism but potentially bad news for the informal economy. A vendor told me that during the Olympics the government will only allow a handful of licensed sellers to hawk souvenirs on the wall, preventing tourists from feeling hassled, but also depriving many of their livelihoods at the height of the peak season.
Here's my pretty mom at one of the prettiest photo ops around:
And me. And yes, I've heard the flying nun comparison, but I reserve the right to bring down my hat flaps in times of great coldness.
Me and mom:
Part II: Juyong Pass
Nick and I hadn't meant to come here, but were taken in by an ingenious diversion scheme, boarding a bus with the same number and destination as one I had taken successfully in the past, but which was parked about a 100 meters west of the official station. Although the ticket was a little more expensive, it looked like a nicer bus.
Turned out that the surcharge not only added an extra stop to our route in the form of a souvenir warehouse, but a tour guide who used a wholly unnecessary and very loud microphone to share the highlights of Beijing. Nick just put on his headphones and tuned it out, but I was tortured by being able to understand most of it and spent most of the trip trying to focus on reading Oliver Twist while wondering why the cruel man was droning on about highway construction and the deliciousness of Beijing roast duck. I was grateful that the journey ended early, even if it stopped at a place I didn't expect to visit.
In the end, we were pleased that we ended up at Juyongguan, where there were few other tourists and zero vendors hawking their wares. It was a very peaceful hike, if a somewhat strenuous one.
Nick pausing amidst the numerous stairs somewhere near the top.
Myself stopping for a rest and a snack.
While passing a group of pre-adolescent British boys on a field trip, I received a valuable history lesson on the historical functions of the wall. Indicating the regular holes, slots, and spaces (which certainly have more technical terms that I am unaware of) placed at varying heights, one boy loudly corrected his classmates: "No,
those are for shooting,
those are for pissing".
I think these views were from the very highest point:
Aside from Juyong, I've never been to a section of the wall where the second floors of the guard towers aren't blocked off. Nick and I were delighted to discover that all were accessible (via
very steep, narrow stairwells) and that they yielded not only better views, but endless opportunities for dramatic sibling-trapped-in-a-tower shots.
Tiny Nick:
Tiny me:
Some style-conscious ladies choose to climb the wall wearing high-heeled shoes, lace stockings, and mini-skirts. While this seems rather unwise to me, it seems quite feasible that this young lady chose her fur-trimmed three-inch heeled ankle boots as a concession to practicality. I've seen worse - at least these look warm.
At Juyongguan Nick had his first experience with being asked to be in the vacation pictures of strangers and showed remarkable patience as a group of Chinese tourists took photographs with him. What a swell guy.
We two on our descent, tired and happy.
On our return to the city I took Nick to my favorite hutong where he got an hour-long foot massage for $5 and then to a bar called Salut, where we sampled several of the house-made rums. All in all, a damn fine day.
At first it seemed a cruel mockery, but there seems to be something to this 'Spring Festival' thing that officially ended a few days ago. Temperatures over the past week have been about 10-15 degrees warmer than they were last week when I brought Rick and Mom here. Not that I minded the cold much. It was a gorgeous crisp day, with magically clear skies and golden light falling on Tiananmen gate and the melting ice in the moat outside it.
On that day I dropped my charges off to explore the Forbidden City together with an English-speaking guide, and set off wandering for a couple of hours. My first stop was new National Center for the Performing Arts, or, as it is popularly called 'The Egg'.
I'd glimpsed the Egg before, on a smoggy day at the end of December, but it looked much prettier in the sun. I'm still not wild about the glass and titanium shell of the building, but I love the shallow pool that surrounds it on all sides. The building in the background is the Great Hall of the People, which faces the Square on the other side. I like the Jetsons-esque pod shape and silvery shine surrounded by the artificial lake and I like that it is right next door to a vast expanse of concrete and socialist realism. They are both utopian fantasies, after all, and for that reason I think they complement each other very nicely.
A bunch of little kids were leaning into the pool and breaking off chunks of ice that were then either thrown in the water or slid across the ice air-hockey style. Mothers stood close at hand, in at least one case patiently holding on to a foot or piece of clothing to prevent the child from going in. It looked like fun.
