When in Rome you do as the Romans do, but when you come to China, you have to go to the wall.
Or not, if you are a member of the West Bromwich Albion football team. Famously, the team visited China in 1978 – the first English professional team to visit the country after it opened to the west. But some of its members didn’t fancy a trip around the landmark – one even remarked: “When you’ve seen one wall, you’ve seen them all.”
Anyway on the day of the proposed visit to Chang Cheng, or long wall as the Chinese call it, I was supposed to have a meeting with an official.
Mmm, meeting with official or Great Wall…. No decision really, and thankfully all kinds of moral dilemmas were removed when the official was understanding about my plight and allowed me to reschedule.
With more than 4,300 miles to choose from, we decided to go to the section at Mutianyu, about 90km north of Beijing.
According to the historic record, the part of the Great Wall was built up by the General Xuda, who served the Emperor Zhu Yanzhang in the early Ming dynasty (1368 onwards).
But this section was built on the ruins of an earlier wall from the North Qi dynasty (220 BC).
Right history lesson over.
The Mutianyu spot is hugged by the mountains, which promised cleaner air on our arrival.
Approaching the wall through the countryside, it came into view dominating the whole landscape. It may not have been very effective as a barrier to barbarians - but there is no denying it is stunning.
After walking through the inevitable street traders – who were friendly enough as they tried to sell their Chairman Mao handbags, army caps and postcards.
We trudged up to the cable cars and ascended the rather steep incline which probably deterred the Mongols more than the wall.
To get off your horse, go up a near 70 per cent incline, and then try and get over the wall must have been pretty daunting, especially for horse loving Mongol horde.
No wonder they didn’t really bother, usually resorted to bribing the guards to open the gates instead.
The wall itself was in pretty good condition following restoration work, and I resolved to get as
high as possible so I could avoid the mist which blanketed the hills.
It was at this point my camera decided to go all temperamental on me, and I had to try to buy some batteries.
I’d got the hang of haggling in an earlier encounter, but being stuck at the top of China’s main tourist attraction completely wrecked my bargaining position.
Revill 0 China 1, as I ended up paying well over the odds, but there you go.
I decided to go to the highest possible point I could see, which involved a near two-mile trek, and avoiding a tumbling brick which chased me down one of the inclines.
After replacing the brick, I headed on, determined I wouldn’t need oxygen by the time I had finished.
I then headed back to minibus, dodging the jolly band of market traders who were now all my friends and remembered me from before.
I bought a photo book, but the best purchase of all was this savoury pancake thing with an egg, a waffle thing and spring onions in.
Called a tien mien (I think, although I apologise if this is something offensive to anyone who can read Chinese) and was absolutely delicious – the best thing I’ve eaten in China so far.
Which could have been one of the reasons for the barbarians trying to get into China in the first place.
Comments (1)
Hi John
Enjoyed reading your reports.Thanks for the company in China ,I think these trips encourage great comradeship and the guys seemed to hit it off well.We continued to have more success after you left.I can fill you in later.Our last meeting finished literally 10 mins before we were due to leave.Hope things went well in Nanjing. Don't forget to get in touch when you get back, remember we only live 10 mins from the airport.
Regards Paul Sullivan
tel 07711102150
Posted by Paul Sullivan | March 26, 2007 1:00 PM
Posted on March 26, 2007 13:00