{"id":97,"date":"2011-05-01T15:53:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T15:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/?p=97"},"modified":"2011-05-02T07:34:48","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T07:34:48","slug":"camping-at-the-great-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"Camping at the Great Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Setting<\/a>ad\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2vent\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2ure<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. an exciting or very unusual experience<\/li>\n
  2. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We’ve been in Beijing for three months and while I been lucky enough to get out for a couple of hikes (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>) \u00c2\u00a0on the Great Wall I hadn’t been camping for around 6 months, the longest time in many years. \u00c2\u00a0The period leading up to the move was extremely busy and things hadn’t let up much since our arrival; in fact this past week had been my busiest since getting here. Several nights I didn’t get to sleep until 2 am.<\/p>\n

    My plan for several months was to get out camping with the family as we had a three day holiday weekend. I had brought a huge bag of camping gear and had enough to outfit everyone. \u00c2\u00a0Leading up to this weekend things weren’t working out with my plans. Stac’s arm still wasn’t feeling well<\/a> and my attempts at recon feel apart. \u00c2\u00a0My one hiking partner here in Beijing from work was busy and out of town. \u00c2\u00a0But I was determined to get out camping with at least Miles and me.<\/p>\n

    Amid the busy work I had been searching for where to go and even looking for a guide. There are many websites offering tours of the Great Wall, but most of these are cattle cars that take bus loads to BaDaLing and then take you to see jade and tea shops where you get sales pitches. \u00c2\u00a0There is a Beijing Hiking group<\/a> but they only take guided day trips. \u00c2\u00a0There are even several sites that offer to guide you camping at the Great Wall. One I contacted looked interesting but everyone was out of town. \u00c2\u00a0Another informed me that the Wall was closed to camping but through connections with a villiage near the wall he could take our family for 4500 rmb ($700 US). \u00c2\u00a0We’ll skip that.<\/p>\n

    They say knowledge is power and in the circumstance of unfamiliarity its difficult to decide where and when to go. With limited time I made the decision to go to Jiankou, based on my hiking partner’s recommendation. \u00c2\u00a0He gave me directions to the\u00c2\u00a0village\u00c2\u00a0of XiZhaZi<\/a>. I had grand plans of doing more research but was so busy I ran out of time. I barely had time to pack Friday morning while on two con-calls with Seattle. \u00c2\u00a0Given that this was the first time breaking out the gear I hadn’t found a source for fuel yet so this would be a “cold” camp. \u00c2\u00a0I packed some bread, some peanut butter, jelly and honey.<\/p>\n

    \"The<\/a>Camping on the Great Wall<\/a> and the destination Jiankou both are controversial subjects. \u00c2\u00a0The Wall has been designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site<\/a>; however the wall is over 4000 miles long and there are only a very few places that have official government\u00c2\u00a0presence (BaDaLing is one of these). \u00c2\u00a0Villages along the Wall profit from tourism that brings visitors and funds. \u00c2\u00a0Unrestored sections of the wall are called “wild” and there are government regulations that imply these sections of the Wall are closed. \u00c2\u00a0Jiankou is\u00c2\u00a0renowned\u00c2\u00a0for amazing scenery and its steep and precipitous geography. \u00c2\u00a0There have been several people killed<\/a> there from lightening strikes and falling to there death. \u00c2\u00a0The Wall at Jiankou is supposedly closed and I’d been told conflicting stories about camping. \u00c2\u00a0I was unsure what we were getting ourselves into but that was part of the adventure to be.<\/p>\n

    After a full day of meetings Mr Wang picked me up with Miles\u00c2\u00a0from work at 3pm and we headed north east out of Beijing. I found the village on my iPhone and made sure we took the right turn offs. As we began winding along the narrow road the mountains rose above us. Along the way we passed many mountain retreats with hotels and restaurants. Eventually we took a sharp left on basically a single lane road and we pulled up in front of the gate of XiZhaZi. The ladies at the guard house were fascinated with Miles who hid shyly from them. Several months prior I’d emailed Robert a small hotel, Zhao’s Hostel<\/a> at XiZhaZi and Mr Wang inquired the location and we headed up the road. \u00c2\u00a0Right at the roads end on a small hill sits the hostel. \u00c2\u00a0There is a courtyard, a couple of squatter toilets and a half a dozen rooms. \u00c2\u00a0Mr. and Mrs Zhao were very friendly. \u00c2\u00a0I called Robert from their land line (my cell had no service) and he chatted with Mrs. Zhao’s daughter who said it was no problem to guide us to the Wall to camp. \u00c2\u00a0Mr Wang elected to stay behind in the hostel for the night.<\/p>\n

    \"Heading<\/a>As we past the field we walked past a large big blue sign that announced this section of the Wall was unrestored and was closed to the public. \u00c2\u00a0I asked her about this and she said that because the local village had “guanxi” (connections) that it was no problem. \u00c2\u00a0The fact that I paid her 80 rmb to lead us to the wall, and their\u00c2\u00a0livelihood depended on visitors probably also explained a great deal.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0After a 40 minute hike we arrived to the top of the wall where a large tower had many places we could camp and several fire pits. \u00c2\u00a0Miles and I opted to carry on; we headed \u00c2\u00a0east another 10 minutes over a crumbled tower to a small rise in the Wall on the flat top of the ridge. \u00c2\u00a0We dropped our packs and scrambled back down to see if there were any more towers. \u00c2\u00a0The next tower had no flat ground and beyond that we could see the Stairway to Heaven section (straight up) and so we returned to the ridge.<\/p>\n

    \"Wall<\/a>As we hiked up the valley to the Wall a local dog joined us. \u00c2\u00a0I asked our guide its name, and she said she wasn’t sure what it was called but that it loved people. \u00c2\u00a0The dog stayed with us and Miles and he played while I set up our tent on the flat tiles of the Wall. \u00c2\u00a0The weather was mostly foggy and we’d been lucky to not have any rain. \u00c2\u00a0Just after I finished pitching the tent the,\u00c2\u00a0suddely the white fog turned pink from a setting sun unseen behind the haze.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The entire experience was surreal. \u00c2\u00a0Here we sat upon the wall built hundreds of years earlier by 1000s of forced laborers. \u00c2\u00a0We climbed through towers with holes in the ground for passage ways, and along the top of the wall where the ramparts crumbled at the touch and trees and shrubberies filled the lane. \u00c2\u00a0Great piles of bricks lay in heaps where the mortar had loosened and fallen by gravities pull.<\/p>\n

    \"Fire<\/a>Having passed the tower and the other fire pits, Miles and I decided to build a fire near our tent. \u00c2\u00a0We climbed over the wall and gathered a bunch of dead brush. \u00c2\u00a0We scraped out spot in the dirt where the bricks were missing and gathered many of the bricks to pile a circle of stones. \u00c2\u00a0 We lit our fire and enjoyed the light and warmth on a cool night at the end of April. \u00c2\u00a0The next<\/p>\n

    \"Onday before we left we’d removed all the ash and scatter it over the cliff on the other side of the wall; rearranged the bricks in a scattered fashion and filled in dirt in the pit. \u00c2\u00a0Leave no trace we left none. \u00c2\u00a0(Reading later on the Great Wall Forum its generally frowned upon lighting fires because it can weaken the already crumbling bricks and mortar; we’ll be better on future visits)<\/p>\n

    \"Pink<\/a>We climbed into our tent and made up our\u00c2\u00a0sandwiches\u00c2\u00a0for dinner. I always load my iPhone with movies before we take trips and Miles and I watched a few minutes of Goonies before we turned off the lights and snuggled down in our bags for the night. \u00c2\u00a0My alarm went off at 5am the next morning to catch the sunrise. \u00c2\u00a0 I unzipped the tent to blowing fog, completely socked in we couldn’t even see the next tower. \u00c2\u00a0Our friend the dog had slept outside all night and greeted us with wagging tail.<\/p>\n

    \"Heaven's<\/a>We decided to go on a short hike that morning and left camp around 6 am. \u00c2\u00a0We headed back towards the Staircase to Heaven. \u00c2\u00a0The Wall here is almost straight up and narrows to a width less than 4 feet. \u00c2\u00a0You can reach your hands out and touch either side. \u00c2\u00a0This section requires concentration as you inch your way up one step at a time. \u00c2\u00a0At the top we rested for a bit and hiked for a few more minutes until we came to another very steep section where the steps had crumbled and there was just the sheer face of the rock cliff. \u00c2\u00a0We opted to stop here and return to camp.<\/p>\n

    As we relaxed back at our tent a group of 4 Chinese guys climbed up from the west. \u00c2\u00a0They said they’d been hiking since MuTianYu. \u00c2\u00a0They were waiting for a friend who they must have left behind as they kept calling his name. \u00c2\u00a0The wind really began to pick up and I wandered down the wall a bit to take photos of the fog blowing across the ridge line. \u00c2\u00a0Upon my return the hiking group said it was too far to return to MuTianYu and asked how they could exit the wall. I gave them directions and then with the weather turning cold from the blowing wind we broke camp and headed down.<\/p>\n

    Back at Zhao’s hostel we found Mr. Wang waiting. Miles and I were hungry so we ordered some noodles and egg fried rice. \u00c2\u00a0This took foreever cause Mrs Zhao had to make a huge pot of rice up before they could stir fry it. \u00c2\u00a0Eventually we got our food and wolfed it down. \u00c2\u00a0Joining Mr. Wang at the car we settled in for our return drive of 2 hours to Beijing. \u00c2\u00a0I was\u00c2\u00a0definitely\u00c2\u00a0in love with Jiankou and we’ll be back to see the Zhao’s and to explore more of this gorgeous section of Beijing.<\/p>\n

    Photos on Flickr<\/a>
    \n    GPX of the Route
    \n<\/a>    Google Map of Great Wall Locations<\/a>
    \n<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

    Camping at The Great Wall<\/a> from mbgriffi<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    ad\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2vent\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2ure an exciting or very unusual experience a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome We’ve been in Beijing for three months and while I been lucky enough to get out for a couple of hikes (1, 2) \u00c2\u00a0on the Great Wall I hadn’t been camping for around 6 months, the longest time … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,23,11,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-mark","category-hiking","category-living-in-beijing","category-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinagriffith.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}