Huangya Guang Great Wall

I'm not good at blogging. Interesting things have happened, but I have been lacking the energy and enthusiasm for writing lately. I have gotten into a wonderful routine - a delightful mix of teaching, lesson planning, grading, reading, and bike riding. Sitting down in front of my computer and writing a blog just hasn't seemed interesting or fun.

However, I had one of the rarest and most exciting adventures this past Saturday...

A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to go to a section of the Great Wall that is located to the north of Tianjin. While the Great Wall stretches over 5,000 miles across China, it is not a continuous wall. It has also been greatly refurbished over the past 20 years. The most famous sites outside of Beijing have been completely rebuilt. On my original 8-day vacation here, we traveled to a part of the Great Wall just outside of Beijing called the Juyung Pass. The views were breathtaking and are some of my favorite memories of China.

I mentioned my desire to travel to the Huangya Guang Great Wall to a few friends. Ultimately, Cathy (another foreign teacher), Maggie (Alex's girlfriend), and I decided to go together.

Our trip started very early. We met outside of Cathy's apartment building at 6am and took a taxi to the bus station. Bus stations in China are completely different than in the U.S. Our bus wouldn't leave until every seat on the bus was filled, so we waited for extra passengers while a man chain smoked cigarettes in front of us.

With the bus filled, we headed north. Randomly, our bus would stop at various street corners and drop off or pick up more passengers. Maggie mentioned that the trip may take a bit longer than normal because of construction, but I wasn't prepared for this trip by any means. We drove along unpaved roads for the vast majority of the trip. At one point, I looked outside and saw a semi truck that had fallen on its side with it's load spilled into a ravine. This construction that Maggie mentioned was not any form of refurbishment. These were the beginnings of paved roads reaching the countryside in China. The first of many, I'm sure.

After about five hours of driving, we reached the bus terminal. As I started exiting the bus, I saw a swarm of men standing in the doorway. I thought they were preparing to travel to the next location, but as their eyes met mine they began shouting and grabbing my arms. My first reaction was to grab my bag and clutch it to my chest, then I grabbed Cathy and Maggie. The men, noticing that I was a foreigner, started shouting things like "Hello!" "US and A!" "Baracka Obama!" These were the illegal taxi drivers I've heard so much about.

Maggie bartered with a younger driver. He agreed to drive us to the Great Wall and back for 30rmb a person. As we headed down the road, our driver looked at me and said,

"Michael Jackson! OKAY!" We listened to Beat It as we drove the rest of the way through the countryside.

We arrived at the Great Wall and I ate an apple for some last minute energy. The climb up this section of the wall was much different than Juyung Pass. Juyung had various outposts and level areas to walk across.

The entire length of the Huangya Guang section was vertical with only two outposts. Nevertheless, we hiked.

It was thrilling to be in nature yet again. The sound of birds chattering away made my heart sing. It has been months since I've seen natural environment.

Cathy and Maggie during our ascent.

About 3/4 of the way up the mountain, the wall changes.

It is no longer the nicely refurbished bricks. Instead, it changes to craggy boulders and rickety handrails. I was in heaven. It was a great feeling climbing up the original wall with rocks shifting under your feet and a slight misstep causing an assured 4th Chinese hospital visit.

At the top, Maggie told me about the Chinese version of Bigfoot. The Chinese believe that there is an entire race of half human/half monkey people that live in the forests and mountains. I stood quietly and hoped to find another set of eyes staring back at me in the forest.

The trip back to Tianjin was even more exciting than our morning excursion. We found a nice woman who owned a van and would drive us to the bus station for a simple fee. As we were nearing the bus station, she called her friend who drove the bus back and forth from Tianjin to Hebei. We were in luck! They were only 30 minutes away and would pick us up at the nearest abandoned gas station! After picking up a few hitchhikers, we found our bus home. This bus was in exponentially worse condition than the morning bus, but my exhaustion ignored this fact. I attempted to sleep as we drove through cornfields and around various livestock. At one point, while mid-air after a particularly large bump, I thought, "This'll make a good blog."

We picked up more random people on unmarked street corners. One man didn't have enough money to pay for his ticket, so our bus driver kindly stopped off at the nearest ATM and we waited for him to withdraw some extra money. We had the option of paying an extra 10rmb to take paved roads, but no one wanted to be bothered with spending any more money. So, we took the same road home. As the lights from Tianjin came into view, I grew sad that I would have to say goodbye to nature for another few weeks. It's hard living in a big city with no escape.